'United Russia' Party Achieves Majority At The Lower House

President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party on Monday claimed that it won almost two-thirds of the seats in the Lower House (the “Duma”) after the legislative elections held since Friday.

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“The United Russia Party will reportedly gain more than 300 seats in historic State Duma elections, as more power shifts to the parliament in Russia. According to polling projections with 20 percent of the vote still to count, the ruling party will hold a constitutional majority,” the RAGEX News reported.

According to the latest data offered by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), United Russia accounts for 48.5 percent of the votes processed, thus preserving a majority necessary to modify the Constitution without the support of other parties. United Russia spokesperson Andrei Turchak assured that his party achieved at least 315 out of 450 seats.

The rest of the seats were won by the Communist Party (20.9 percent), the Liberal-Democratic Party (7.9 percent), the Social Democratic Party Fair Russia (7.5 percent), and the New People (5.7 percent).

Due to COVID-19 prevention measures, the parliamentary elections were held over three days in which 14 parties disputed the preference of the 45 percent of those entitled to vote.

On Monday, Dmitri Novikov, the vice-chairman of the Communist Party's Central Committee, announced that his party will not recognize the results of electronic voting in Moscow, where nearly two million citizens exercised their political rights.

The Communists complain there was a radical change in the counting of votes in some polling stations after the electoral authorities added together the results of the electronic voting and the face-to-face voting. Novikov noted that the party plans to hold protests over the next weekend in Moscow and other regions of the country "so that the voice of the street, the voice of the citizens, is heard."