"A GREEN white mouthed monster inviting passers by to visit the "House of Whores" stood be side the entrance to public school 207 polling station in the centre of St Petersburg yesterday. One could speculate on the relevance of such an image to the beleaguered Russian voter, who has been exposed to a parade of promises and stunts that verged on the monstrous from the list of candidates.
But one thing voters in Russia's strongly pro-Yeltsin second city were not expecting yesterday was a surprise result from the first round of the presidential race. Conservative estimates place support for the incumbent President here at around 50 per cent.
The city's streets were still elaborately adorned in bunting, left over from a visit by Yeltsin last week, when he pledged funding to bale out its financially troubled art gallery and museum, the State Hermitage. Yeltsin's upbeat posters proclaimed that "happiness is now" while those of his main rival, Communist Gennady Zyuganov, were few and far between.
Some 3.2 million people were eligible to vote at St Petersburg's 1,767 polling stations. Journeys on suburban buses and trains were free of charge for the day to encourage voter turnout.
The city's recently elected governor, Vladimir Yakovlev, who is a Yeltsin supporter, said he had "faith" there would be no falsification when he cast his vote in public school 207.
Outside the polling station, a pensioner who did not want to be named, said she had voted for Zyuganov because her monthly pension of 300,000 roubles (£40) was not enough to pay her gas and telephone bills and look after her unemployed alcoholic son.
When asked which candidate he had voted for, 20 year old Vladimir Semenovsky replied simply "Stability". This meant Yeltsin, he explained, "because he is the only person who will maintain stability and withstand a coup if it comes to that".
In a polling station in the socio-cultural centre of the city's main thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt, an election official said that turnout had been steady all day. The fruit seller was voting for Yeltsin "because private businesses like mine are possible under him".