Moscow, Feb 9 (IANS): Eight candidates including Russian President Vladimir Putin have been confirmed to contest in the presidential election on March 18.
According to the Central Election Commission, the names of the eight candidates will be arranged in alphabetical order on the ballots, reports Xinhua news agency.
To register as an independent presidential candidate, an aspiring contestant had to collect at least 300,000 voters' signatures by February 1 while a candidate from a political party needed to collect a minimum of 100,000 signatures.
Putin, who is on his third term, is widely expected to have a landslide victory as he reportedly enjoys much higher approval ratings than his rivals.