The main Kremlin-supporting party has retained its majority in the Russian parliament, election officials said after a vote that eliminated most opposition candidates and allowed the ruling party to maintain its strong grip on power, the Associated Press reported, BTA reported.
According to the Central Election Commission, results from more than 95% of polling stations give United Russia just under 58% of the vote for the 225 parliamentary seats distributed by party lists. The remaining 225 deputies are elected in single-member constituencies, with United Russia candidates are leading in 208 of them.
The chairwoman of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova said that according to preliminary results, “United Russia“ will receive 355 of the total 450 seats in the State Duma.
These were the first parliamentary elections since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the first in which voting was also organized among residents of four Ukrainian regions occupied and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year. Voting was also held in Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, the AP said. Kiev described the vote in these Ukrainian territories as illegal.
Ahead of the elections, the Kremlin increased pressure on the opposition, among other things, not allowing the only liberal and anti-war party in Russia to participate with a party list and allowing it to nominate candidates only in single-mandate districts. In addition to “United Russia”, several other parties that almost always support the Kremlin's initiatives also won seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.