Unlike Vienna, where voter turnout had hardly changed compared to 2018 despite long queues, five times more people voted in Salzburg, including numerous Russians living in Germany.
According to the Central Election Commission, 1,437 voting cards were issued at the Consulate General in Salzburg on Sunday: 52.68 percent of voters voted for the conditionally liberal presidential candidate Davankov, 22.82 percent voted invalidly, 21.09 percent for Putin. In the last presidential election in 2018, only 237 people voted in the consulate general on the Salzach. The drastic increase is likely to have something to do with Russians from Germany, who moved to neighboring Austria after the Russian consulate general in Munich was closed.
Salzburg result coincides with exit polls
The official Salzburg result for Dawankov coincided almost exactly with the results of an exit poll by “independent activists” who also conducted surveys in Vienna and Salzburg on Sunday in front of the Russian polling stations. The “Vote Abroad” initiative in Salzburg had given lower figures for the candidate Putin, of eight percent.
The voter turnout at the embassy in Vienna remained constant: 2,250 people voted in 2018, and on Sunday it was 2,278. There was a big rush in Vienna, especially after 12 p.m. – supporters of Alexei Navalny had taken part in the “Lunch against Putin” protest. called – initially suggests a higher voter turnout: Russians living in Austria could not remember that before this election Sunday there would have been queues of several hundred meters long in front of the Russian embassy during the polls.
Observers on Sunday evening associated queuing times of sometimes more than five hours with a significantly slower procedure: in particular, the security checks and the obligatory handing over of cell phones in the entrance area took time. A large number of people probably queued up to spend time with friends, but ultimately did not find their way to the polling station.
Unlike the Salzburg result, the official election result from Vienna was not yet available on the website of the Central Election Commission in Moscow on Monday morning and the Russian embassy did not want to provide the APA with any information. At least the “Exit Polls” from “Vote Abroad” also saw Dawankov at the top in Vienna with 44 percent and Putin at seven percent.
