President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party was leading Russia’s parliamentary election with more than 90 percent of ballots counted, state media reported on Monday, in a tightly controlled vote held amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to data from the Central Election Commission cited by the state news agency TASS, United Russia had secured 57.86 percent of the vote after 90.43 percent of ballots were tallied. The party is projected to retain its majority in the 450-seat State Duma, the lower house of parliament.
Voter turnout stood just below 57 percent as of Sunday night. More than 3.6 million people voted online, TASS said, citing the Ministry of Digital Development.
Other parties permitted on the ballot trailed significantly. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation recorded 13.84 percent, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 8.9 percent, New People 7.94 percent and A Just Russia 4.95 percent, according to the same figures.
No major upsets have been reported so far. The election, which ran from Friday to Sunday, was the first for the State Duma since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Most anti-war candidates were barred from running.
The Berlin-based think tank NEST, co-founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, noted that support for systemic opposition parties could reflect quiet discontent. “The consequences of the war are increasingly being felt within the country, and accumulated anxiety and frustration may translate into votes for the systemic opposition parties that the Kremlin has allowed to remain on the ballot,” NEST said in a note.
Voting also took place in four Ukrainian regions annexed by Moscow in 2022 — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia — as well as in Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. The United Nations and most countries do not recognise these territories as part of Russia.
Ukraine denounced the election as illegal. Moscow accused Kyiv of attempting to disrupt the vote after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes on Sunday targeted the Moscow region and other areas, killing at least five people, including an election official, according to Russian regional authorities and the election commission.
Preliminary results and turnout figures are expected later on Monday, with final results unlikely before Friday, TASS reported.
