Ruling Party Heads For Big Win In Russian Parliament Elections

The party had 57.04% support with 25.21% of the vote counted, state television reported late Sunday, citing Russia's Central Election Commission. United Russia was leading in 161 of 225 single-mandate constituencies with 20.12% of votes counted, the state-run Tass news service reported.

The party may regain the constitutional majority of more than two-thirds of seats that it held in the previous parliament, Tass reported. United Russia, which campaigned as President Vladimir Putin's party, has held a majority in the lower house of parliament since 2003.

The Communist Party was second with 13.92% followed by the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party with 9.31%, state TV reported, citing the election commission.

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Half of the Duma's 450 seats are allocated by party list and the other half are contested in single-member constituencies. The election commission said turnout was 57%, state television reported, exceeding the level of the last election in 2021.

Two other parties were also set to clear the 5% threshold to return to the Duma. The New People, which bills itself as a pragmatic, business-friendly party, had 8.01% and the left-leaning A Fair Russia was on 5.22% with a quarter of election protocols counted, according to state TV.

Preliminary results will be announced at 11 a.m. on Monday in Moscow, Pamfilova said on state TV.

These were the first State Duma elections since Putin ordered the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With Russia's military incurring massive casualties for little progress on the battlefield in Ukraine, there are fears among Russians that the Kremlin plans a massive new mobilization to draft hundreds of thousands into the army after the elections.

Putin denies he has any such plans, calling the suggestion of a draft "complete nonsense" earlier this month.

All parties on the ballot supported Putin over the war - conceived as a "special military operation" lasting days or weeks, and now well into its fifth year - and offered no criticism of the president's domestic policies.

That's even as Russia's economy shows increasing strain, with persistent inflation, high interest rates and low growth amid massive government spending on the military.

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After the liberal Yabloko party announced it would campaign on a "for peace and freedom" platform, it was barred last month from the party list for the State Duma by Russia's Supreme Court for alleged violations of electoral rules. Some individual candidates remained on the ballot for the single-mandate contests.

Lev Shlosberg, a deputy chairman of the party, was sentenced to 11 years and one month in prison a week later under Russia's "fake news" law for opposing the war.

Kremlin officials had initially allowed Yabloko to run, believing the party would get only 1% or 2% as in past elections. But after a surge in popularity over its anti-war message indicated Yabloko may enter the Duma, a rival pro-Putin party applied to the court to exclude it from the election.

Besides the Duma vote, elections were also held for legislative bodies in 39 Russian regions and municipal bodies in 10 constituent territories of Russia. Governors in 11 regions were also elected.