While Sunday’s vote showed some signs of hope for the Russian opposition to finally break into parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, the exit polls indicated a decisive victory for President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia. The Communist Party won 13.54%, the Liberal Democratic Party won 13.28% and the Fair Russia Party won 6.19% of the vote. In contrast to the two previous elections, only half the seats in this election were chosen by national party list; the others were contested by single-seat districts.
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“We must and will develop a multi-party system in Russian Federation, support civil society, including patriotically-oriented and non-governmental organizations”, Putin said.
Such a predictable win left behind other political parties, in Russian parliament 343 from 450 seats now belong to the member of United Russia.
The news agency also reported that turnout was low with around 40 percent, compared to 60 percent in the last election.
Vladimir Putin’s party United Russia on Monday won the elections by securing parliamentary majority with 54.2 per cent votes.
Putin, who was speaking at United Russia’s election headquarters shortly after the polls closed, told party members that he views the early results as a vote of confidence.
The three parties who were the next most popular – the Communist Party, The Liberal Democrats and the Just Russia Party – all support Mr Putin. “Nevertheless, we have this result”, said Putin, whose approval ratings stand at around 80 percent.
In an ominous sign for Russian democracy one of the top Twitter trends on polling day in Russia was #ЯнеГолосовал (I did not vote).
Analysts have seen the voting as a likely referendum on Putin’s expected 2018 run for re-election. “Nevertheless, we have this result”.
Meanwhile, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), put United Russia at getting 44.7 percent of the vote.
Mr. Putin is not officially a member of the United Russia party, although he founded it almost 16 years ago after first taking presidential office.
Videos said to show instances of ballot stuffing during Sunday’s voting have been posted on various social media and websites.
According to official results, the closest contest in the 2016 election was for second place.
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After the last election in 2011, anger at ballot-rigging prompted large protests in Moscow, and the Kremlin will be anxious to avoid a repetition of such unrest.
