国际英语新闻：Belarus remains calm before presidential election

MINSK, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Belarussian government on Saturday vowed to safeguard a smooth presidential election slated for Sunday.

The five-day early voting prior to the official election day has concluded Saturday, with the voter turnout estimated at more than 20 percent.

During the day, Xinhua correspondents saw some voters came to cast their ballots at the No. 1 polling station set in the Belarussian sports college.

Situations in the Belarussian capital city of Minsk were calm, where fully-adorned Christmas trees were erected everywhere along the streets.

The early voting in Belarus usually starts five days earlier than the official voting day, allowing any citizen who can not vote on the polling day to maintain their sovereign voting rights and cast their ballot for a candidate in advance.

Over 6,000 polling stations across Belarus were set to open at 08:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) Sunday. Ten candidates, including the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, would participate in the election.