Russia’s ruling party is set to take more than three-quarters of seats in parliamentary elections that were tightly managed by the Kremlin to demonstrate support for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.
United Russia got 57.8% backing for 355 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, as the lower house of parliament is known, with 95% of votes counted, according to preliminary results published Monday by the country’s Central Election Commission.
The Communist Party was a distant second with 13.8% and 40 seats. The nationalist Liberal Democratic Party got 9% support for 25 seats and the New People, which bills itself as pragmatic and business-friendly, received 8% of the vote for 20 seats.
There was a record turnout of 59.32%, according to election commission chief Ella Pamfilova. She said a fifth party, Fair Russia, which was present in the previous parliament, was at 4.96% and still had a chance to cross the 5% threshold for seats as counting continued. Five other seats went to individual candidates, including one from the Motherland party, she said.
Half of the seats in the State Duma are allocated by party list and the other half are contested in single-member constituencies. Voting took place over three days from Friday until Sunday.
There were no genuine opposition parties in the election, which the Kremlin intended to show that Russians remain united behind Putin over the war in Ukraine that’s now well into its fifth year. As Russia’s military incurs massive casualties for little progress on the battlefield, there are fears among Russians that the president plans a new mass mobilization to draft hundreds of thousands into the army after the elections.
Putin has denied he has any such plans, calling the suggestion of a draft “complete nonsense” earlier this month.
United Russia, which campaigned as Putin’s party has held a majority in the Duma since 2003. It increased its total from 310 seats in the last parliament, which was already a so-called constitutional majority of at least two-thirds, allowing the Kremlin to amend the constitution if desired.
What’s at Stake for Putin in Russian Wartime Election: Explainer
The final day of the election was marked by one of the heaviest Ukrainian drone attacks since the start of the war. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed 1,110 Ukrainian drones across 19 Russian regions as well as Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014.
That was the largest overnight total reported so far this year, surpassing the previous high of 822 in August.
