MOSCOW, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - The state-run VTsIOM opinion center forecast on Thursday that Dmitry Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister and a presidential runner, will receive 74.8% of the vote in the March 2 elections.

Another three candidates have passed the registration procedures ahead of the polls in addition to Medvedev: Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, the ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Andrei Bogdanov, the leader of the tiny pro-Western Democratic Party.

"This is about the number [President] Vladimir Putin received in 2004 [71%]," VTsIOM Director General Valery Fyodorov told a news conference. He added that 75% of Medvedev's electorate were those who voted for Putin in 2004.

Publicly endorsed as his choice of successor by Putin, Medvedev enjoys high popularity ratings in the country and is the clear front-runner.

Fyodorov forecast that Zyuganov would receive 12.8% of votes, Zhirinovsky 11.5% and Bogdanov a mere 0.9%.

Fyodorov said that a survey conducted among a sample of 1,600 in 46 Russian regions last weekend showed that 63.5 % of respondents would vote for Medvedev, 5.3% for Zyuganov, 5.5% for Zhirinovsky and 0.4% for Bogdanov.

Commenting on Medvedev's announcement on Monday that he will not take part in live televised debates, Fyodorov said this was unlikely to reduce the number of his potential voters.

Zyuganov said he would take part in the TV debates.

Fyodorov also said that voter turnout on March 2 would be around 70.7%.