Vladimir Putin’s party dominates Russian Federation vote with 44.5 percent

According to preliminary results released Monday by the Central Election Commission (CEC), with an increase of 105 seats, United Russia boasts 343 seats out of the 450 in the new State Duma, or more than the two thirds needed for a constitutional majority.

Liberal Democratic Party of Russian Federation, has own second with 15.3 percent while Russia’s Communist Party occupied next place with 14.9 and 18.1 percent respectively.

In the last election for the Duma, or lower house of parliament, in 2011, United Russia won 49 percent of the vote.

This win would give the party 76 percent of all the 450 seats in the lower house of the parliament, much higher than the 53 percent it now holds.

Of the 225 seats distributed in single-member constituencies 203 will go to United Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreground left, casts his vote at Polling Station No. 2151 at the Russian Academy of Sciences on Unified Election Day.

The claims have surfaced after footage was leaked online showing polling officers stuffing paper into a ballot box. The Just Russia party won 6.2 per cent, according to the incomplete vote count.

United Russia’s gains came at the expense of three other parties that had largely complied with the Kremlin’s wishes. It means the party will have as many as 105 seats more compared to the previous Duma. And despite Pamfilova’s assurances that the voting was going on normally elsewhere, Mikhail Kasyanov, leader of the Russian opposition party, PARNAS, reported “massive violations” elsewhere including the capital.

No other party cleared the 5-percent mark need to win party-list seats. “Once again the president gained an impressive vote of confidence from the people of this country”, Peskov told reporters.

Turnout was estimated at 47.99 percent.

The Communists have lost 50 seats, Liberal Democratic Party have lost 17, and A Just Russia lost 41. Russian Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova had promised to clean up the system earlier this year.

The head of the OSCE election monitoring team, Ilkka Kanerva, today said the vote was run more transparently than in the past, while noting issues such as restrictions on candidates, state control of the media, and numerous procedural irregularities, RFE reports.