Russian President Vladimir Putin’s party claims legislative victory

Published on : 09/20/2021 – 09:36

With more than two-thirds of the seats claimed, Monday, September 20, the Kremlin party claims to retain the super-majority in Parliament, following three days of voting in the legislative elections in Russia.

Senior United Russia official Andrei Turchak estimated his party had won at least 315 of the 450 terms at stake, hailing a “clear and clean” victory, despite multiple accusations of fraud by the anti-Kremlin opposition who, in the wake of months of repression, was excluded from the poll.

After the count of 85% of polling stations, Vladimir Putin’s party was at 49.76%, ahead of the Communists (19.61%). This non-final result is down from 2016, when United Russia secured 54% of the vote. The party then arrogated 334 elected.

Andreï Turtchak also claimed victory in the 39 regions where the regional legislatures were renewed. The movement of the imprisoned opponent Alexeï Navalny denounced, for its part, massive electoral fraud during the vote but also during the count.

United Russia is far from being able to claim to have won the hearts of Russians, as evidenced by its confidence rating of less than 30%, according to the state polling center VTsIOM.

The party is plagued by corruption cases and falling living standards in the country. Ahead of the legislative elections, Alexeï Navalny’s movement was banned for extremism, and his supporters excluded from the ballot.

The latter had therefore called for the “intelligent vote”, consisting in voting for the candidates, generally Communists, best placed to hamper those of united Russia. According to opponents, the success of this strategy was revealed during the count, so that the authorities resorted to massive falsifications.

With AFP