Putin supporters solidify control of Russian parliament in national election

The biggest party supporting President Vladimir Putin scored an overwhelming victory in Russia's national parliament elections, winning three-quarters of the seats, the Central Elections Commission reported Monday.

With 93 per cent of the ballots from Sunday's vote counted, the United Russia party was on track to get 343 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, CEC head Ella Pamfilova said. She said the results were not expected to change significantly in the final count to be announced Friday.

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It's an immense gain, more than 100 seats, for the party that held a majority in the previous parliament, and gives it enough strength to amend the constitution on its own.

The landslide victory in the election paves the way for Putin to run for a fourth term as president in 18 months if, as expected, he chooses to do so.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin "once again received a massive vote of confidence from the country's people."

Turnout was distinctly lower than in the last Duma election in 2011 — less than 48 per cent nationwide compared with 60 per cent. In Moscow, just 35 per cent of those eligible cast ballots.

The three other parties that had been in the previous parliament and that largely co-operated with United Russia will also be in the new Duma, though all in reduced numbers. The Communists will have 42, a sharp drop from 92, the nationalist Liberal Democrats 39 and A Just Russia 23.

Two other seats were won by candidates from small parties and one by an independent. 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.

Significant drop in turnout from 2011

Turnout was distinctly lower than in the last Duma election in 2011 — less than 48 per cent nationwide compared with 60 per cent.

But the election observer mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe pointedly said that Russians felt widely disengaged from the political process. The mission criticized the news reporting on national TV channels, which are owned or controlled by the state, for focusing overwhelmingly on the incumbent authorities and noted "self-censorship encouraged by the restrictive legal and regulatory framework."

Ilkka Kanerva, a Finnish parliamentarian and the OSCE's special coordinator for the elections, said the electoral environment was negatively affected by restrictions to fundamental freedoms. 

'Carousel voting'

"If Russia is to live up to its democratic commitments, greater space is needed for debate and civic engagement," he said.

Complaints of violations came from around the country, including ballot-box stuffing and so-called "carousel voting" in which voters are transported to several locations to cast multiple ballots.

Pamfilova, head of Russia's election monitor, said it had launched a criminal probe of one voting district, where video from a closed-circuit camera appeared to show a poll worker carefully dropping multiple ballots into the box.

Pamfilova said other violations reports would be looked into and that results from three precincts could be annulled.

Anger over widespread fraud in the 2011 election sparked large protests that unsettled authorities by their size and persistence.

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