United Russia may receive 355 seats in the State Duma — TimesLIVE
In Russia, an aggressor state, the United Russia party may retain its majority in the State Duma following the parliamentary elections, according to preliminary data. It may receive 355 of the 450 parliamentary mandates, TimesLIVE reports, citing the Associated Press.
Preliminary results
After data from more than 95% of polling stations had been processed, United Russia had slightly less than 58% of the vote in the party-list election. Under this system, 225 seats in the lower house of the Russian parliament are allocated.
Another 225 deputies were elected in single-member districts. United Russia candidates were leading in 208 such districts. Besides it, other parties also won mandates which, according to the agency, almost always support Kremlin initiatives.
Voting in occupied territories
These are the first parliamentary elections in Russia since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Residents of four Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia, which Moscow attempted to illegally annex that year, were involved in the voting. Voting was also held in Ukrainian Crimea, temporarily occupied by Russia. Kyiv called the holding of elections in these territories illegal.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
At one polling station in the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine's Donetsk region, voters placed their ballots in a box in the presence of an armed Russian serviceman who watched them.
Pressure on the opposition
On the eve of the elections, Russian authorities increased pressure on their opponents. The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political force that publicly criticized the war, was excluded by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation from the party-list elections. The party had only several dozen candidates in single-member districts.
Yabloko and the Communist Party said that many of their observers were not allowed into polling stations. Russia did not invite observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Pere Joan Pons, called this a violation of Russia's obligations as a member state of the organization.
