After 20 per cent of the ballots in the party-list vote had been counted, Putin’s United Russia had received 49.8 per cent of the vote, ahead of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party on 15.7 per cent, the Communists on 15.3 and A Just Russia on 6.4, results published by the central election commission showed.
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The United Russia party backed by President Vladimir Putin has won 54.2 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election, based on the 93 percent of ballots counted by Monday, data from the election commission showed.
According to the latest official vote count, the Communists were on track to come in second with 42 seats, the populist LDPR party in third with 41, and the left-of-center Just Russia party fourth with 21 seats.
Results indicated that liberal opposition groups would not make it into parliament, with neither the Yabloko party, nor the Parnas party, headed by former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, having secured enough votes to win a seat.
United Russia actually won far fewer votes this time than in the previous parliamentary election, in 2011, but it gained more seats because of the low turnout.
Only 47.8 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots, compared with 60 percent in 2011, with many viewing the Duma as a toothless rubber-stamp chamber.
“The question now is.how to live with a one-party parliament”, Gudkov said.
Putin cheers crushing win in Russian Federation parliament vote was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on September 20, 2016 and was last updated on September 20, 2016.
The ballot for the 450-seat State Duma was smooth sailing for authorities desperate to avoid a repeat of mass protests last time round and eager to increase their dominance as Russian Federation faces the longest economic crisis of Putin’s rule.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, told reporters that the “overwhelming majority” of voters had come out for Putin, handing him what he called “an impressive vote of confidence”.
Putin’s aides are likely to use the result as a springboard for his own campaign for re-election in 2018, though he has not yet confirmed that he will seek another term.
And despite a bruising recession that has hit average Russians hard, Putin’s approval rating remains around 80 percent. “Nevertheless, we have this result”, said Putin.
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”.
For the first time since Moscow seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014, residents there voted for Russia’s parliament, in a poll slammed by Ukraine as illegal.
The return of an old voting system, under which half, rather than all, deputies were drawn from party lists with the other half decided by people voting for individuals, boosted United Russia’s seats. Around Russia, elections for regional heads also showed Kremlin stalwarts dominating.
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The pro-Kremlin United Russia party is expected to retain its dominance and the three other largely cooperative parties in the current parliament are also expected to win seats.
