The ruling United Russia party has “won” Russia’s so-called parliamentary election, receiving more than half of the votes.
According to results announced after 83.52% of ballots had been counted, United Russia received 57.82% of the vote, the election commission claimed on Monday.
United Russia candidates are also leading in 208 of the 225 single-member constituencies.
According to preliminary estimates, the ruling party will hold 338 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, securing the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution.
Only parties that support Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war against Ukraine were allowed to take part in Russia’s three-day election process.
Russia’s only anti-war party, Yabloko, was barred from participating in the “election”.
As a result, only parties already represented in the State Duma have secured seats: the Communist Party with 13.84% of the vote, the Liberal Democratic Party, founded by the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with 8.77%, and the pseudo-liberal New People party with 7.07%.
At the same time, according to preliminary results, the A Just Russia party received 4.99% of the vote, failing to clear the 5% threshold required to enter the State Duma.
According to the authorities, voter turnout reached 56%, higher than in the previous State Duma election in 2021.
Despite protests from Kyiv and the international community, the so-called election was held for the first time in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where voting often took place under the threat of armed occupying forces.
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