MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2019) Russian journalists accredited in Belarus are being barred from accessing the polling place inside the Ukrainian embassy in Minsk on the day of Ukrainian presidential election, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene on Sunday.
"Of course Russian journalists are not allowed to enter the polling place," a diplomat at the embassy told the correspondent.
The diplomat did not give an explanation as to why this was the embassy's position.
At the same time, Belarusian, Ukrainian and other foreign correspondents were given access to the polling place.
The diplomat also said that throughout the day, the embassy's security staff had barred several representatives from Russian media outlets from entering the polling place, but did not specify which ones exactly had been refused the right of entry.
Approximately 13,000 Ukrainian citizens who currently live in Belarus can vote in Sunday's Ukrainian presidential election in two polling places located in the Ukrainian embassies in Minsk and Brest. The polling places open at 8 a.m. (5:00 GMT) and close at 8 p.m.
Ukrainians went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president out of a crowded pool of 39 contenders. Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ukraine's current leader Petro Poroshenko are heading into a runoff after neither presidential candidate won over 50 percent of votes needed to avoid a second round, exit polls showed.
Zelenskiy came first with 29.25 percent to 30.7 percent of votes, according to four exit polls by the national, 1+1, 112 Ukraine and Pryarmiy television channels. Poroshenko followed with 17.8 percent to 19.19 percent, while ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was third with 13.75 percent to 14.2 percent of votes.
The Ukrainian police said they had been alerted to 1,360 electoral irregularities and opened 17 criminal cases as of late afternoon, but the Central Election Commission said it had not registered any serious violations.
Russia has condemned Ukraine's decision to bar its observers from polling places, which it said undermined the vote's legitimacy and could affect Moscow's decision to accept the outcome. Up to 10 million Ukrainians in the breakaway eastern provinces and Russia have been disenfranchised.
