By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will win the March 4 presidential election with over 58 percent of the vote in the first round, according to a survey conducted by state-run pollster VTsIOM.
VTsIOM head Valery Fedorov said the survey showed Putin will win 58.6 percent of the vote.
Communist party candidate Gennady Zyuganov will take second place with 14.8 percent and Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky will come in third with 9.4 percent.
Billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov will get 8.7 percent of the vote and A Just Russia’s Sergei Mironov will get 7.7 percent, he said.
According to VTsIOM, 67 percent of those surveyed said Putin would win after the first round of the presidential election, while 20 percent said he would have to go through a second round.
The pollster predicted that 0.8 percent of the ballots will be invalid.
The poll surveyed 1,600 people across Russia Feb 11-12.