With 70 percent of the vote from the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament) elections counted, official results show the Russian ruling party, United Russia, set to dominate the parliament wining more than 300 of the 450 legislative seats – enough to secure a two-thirds constitutional majority in the lower chamber of parliament.
The preliminary results announced by the Central Election Commission in Moscow early today show United Russia with more than 54 percent of the party list vote.
Candidates from United Russia, which is backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, also were leading in 203 of 255 single-member constituencies with half of all ballots counted.
Unlike the last two parliamentary elections, only half of the seats will be selected by national party-list, with the other 225 being contested in races held in specific districts.
Only three other parties were reportedly on track to surpass the 5 percent threshold needed in the September 18 election to secure party representation in the legislature. All are loyal to the Kremlin and its policies.
They include the Communist Party with 13.77 percent, the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia with 13.53 percent, and A Just Russia with 6.13 percent.
The Central Election Commission said early on September 19 that turnout was about 47.5 percent of eligible voters – down from about 60 percent in the 2011 State Duma election.
According to Reuters, Russian President Putin, speaking to United Russia campaign staff a few minutes after polling stations closed on Sunday night, said the win showed voters still trusted the leadership despite an economic slowdown made worse by Western sanctions over Ukraine.
"We can say with certainty that the party has achieved a very good result; it's won," Putin said at the United Russia headquarters, where he arrived together with Dmitry Medvedev, who is prime minister and the party's leader.
CNN reports that in past votes, most opposition candidates have been blocked or excluded. But in Sunday's election, hundreds of Kremlin critics were allowed to run for office — although some have complained of threats and harassment. Some were even given air time on Kremlin-controlled state television.
