MINSK. Feb 26 (Interfax) - Slightly over 73% of voters cast their ballots on the Unified Voting Day in Belarus on Sunday, the Belarusian Central Elections Commission (CEC) said.
"The Belarusian CEC has updated the preliminary information on the voter turnout on the Unified Voting Day. It reached 73.09%," the CEC said after completing the preliminary count of votes at 2 a.m.
CEC chair Igor Karpenko tentatively estimated the voter turnout at 72.98% after polling stations closed on Sunday evening.
Local councils and the parliament's lower chamber were elected in Belarus on February 25. There were 5,411 polling stations nationwide with 6.913 million eligible voters listed. According to the CEC, 41.71% of voters cast their ballots over five days of early voting.
The Belarusian CEC accredited 294 international election observers, including 238 members of the CIS election-monitoring mission led by Commonwealth of Independent States Secretary-General Sergei Lebedev.