No other party cleared the 5-percent mark need to win party-list seats.
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That would be its biggest ever majority. “Once again the president gained an impressive vote of confidence from the people of this country”, Peskov told reporters. Dmitry Gudkov, the only liberal opposition politician to hold a seat before, said he had been beaten by a United Russia candidate whose chances he said had been lifted by poor turnout.
“The new parliament won’t be a legitimate representative body representing the will of interests of the citizens of the county”, Parnas head Mikhail Kasyanov said in a statement.
Mr Putin said his party had “achieved a very good result”, however the turnout was a record low 47.8%.
Russia’s elections commission head says results from voting for parliament in a Siberian region could be annulled if allegations of vote fraud there are confirmed.
Our correspondent in Moscow Galina Polonskaya said: “Even if first comments at United Russia HQ were prudent, there’s less and less doubt that this party remains the undisputed leader”.
“Given the current difficulties, the large amount of uncertainty and risks, people undoubtedly chose stability”.
Putin praised the results of the State Duma election, saying Monday that they showed “how our citizens reacted to attempts at external pressure on Russian Federation, threats of sanctions, attempts to destabilize the situation in our country from within”.
Putin, 63, is widely expected to seek re-election in March 2018.
The pro-Kremlin party had 54 percent of the vote with 92 percent of the ballots counted, according to Russia’s central election commission. Reuters reporters at one polling station in the Mordovia region of central Russian Federation witnessed several people casting their ballot, then coming back later and voting again.
Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that while the handling of the vote was more transparent than before, “greater space is needed for debate and civic engagement”.
But he said the overall picture was beset by problems.
“The improved transparency and trust we have seen in the election administration are important steps, yet legal restrictions on basic rights continue to be a problem”, Kanerva said.
The Communists and the nationalist Liberal Democrats were shown with about 15 percent of the vote each and the A Just Russia Party with 8 percent – roughly the same proportion as in the old parliament.
“It is obvious that the overwhelming majority of voters in fact expressed their support for the president”. It would be wrong to call the turnout low, he said, adding that it was higher than in most European countries. It says the vote was clean. Near final results showed it won 140 seats under the list system and 203 seats from the constituency system. When the dust settles, it is estimated that United Russia could walk away with far more than 300 seats.
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Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin comfortably won a parliamentary election, early results showed on Monday.
