Pro-Putin party gets record 355 parliamentary seats, anti-war party gains tiny regional foothold

MOSCOW – The pro-Putin ruling United Russia party won a record number of seats in the national parliament, according to near-complete official election results on Sept 21, while the anti-war Yabloko party appeared to have won a tiny foothold in one regional Parliament.

President Vladimir Putin had cast the three-day election to the State Duma – the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 – as a test of support for the war.

Elections for some regional parliaments and governors were held at the same time.

In a tightly controlled political system, which critics say does not tolerate genuine dissent, under which many of Yabloko’s candidates were barred, few surprises were expected.

But political analysts said it was important to the authorities that the process itself was seen to be relatively smooth.

United Russia retains overwhelming majority

Officials from Putin down had cast the vote as a way of showing enemies that Russia was united.

With over 95 per cent of the vote counted, Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission, said United Russia had won a resounding victory with 57.83 per cent, up from the 49.8 per cent that it won in the last parliamentary election in 2021.

United Russia was set to control 355 seats or nearly 80 per cent of the 450-seat Duma, a total that includes results in individual constituencies.

That would maintain its constitutional majority – enabling it to pass laws and initiate amendments to the Constitution without the support of other parties.

It would also be an all-time high, outstripping its 2016 record of 343 seats.

Four other parties had made it into Parliament – the Communists with 13.81 per cent, the ultra-nationalist LDPR with 8.98 per cent and the New People party with 7.96 per cent. The Just Russia party narrowly made the 5 per cent threshold needed to enter Parliament.

All of those parties have voted in the same way as United Russia on major issues in recent years.

In Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally, was re-elected to a fifth term as leader with an official tally of nearly 100 per cent.

Pamfilova said the turnout among Russia’s 111 million voters – which she put at 59.3 per cent – was a record for such an election, which continued despite a heavy Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow on Sept 20, the last day of voting.

She also called the vote “clean” in the face of allegations of widespread rigging from opposition activists in exile.

Yabloko, the only registered anti-war party in Russia, failed to win any seats at a national level.

But in Novgorod, about 480km north-west of Moscow, with nearly 97 per cent of votes counted, it appeared to have cleared the 5 per cent barrier by one percentage point to enter the regional Parliament.

“More than 12,000 Novogorod residents supported Yabloko,” the party, which supports a ceasefire in Ukraine, said in a statement.

“Peace, freedom and a life free from fear are values that have struck a chord in people’s hearts and souls.”

Hopes for a brighter future

Nobody interviewed by Reuters on Sept 21 expressed any surprise at the election’s outcome. Some expressed hope that positive changes could follow.

“In the morning, I saw that United Russia was winning. It probably comes as a surprise to nobody,” said Moscow resident Tatyana.

Asked what she would like to change, she said: “Well, I guess everyone knows the most acute thing – the conflict in Ukraine. I’d like to see it end sooner, with peaceful methods if possible.”

Daniil, who said he had been unable to vote because the system wrongly suggested he had already done so, said he wanted Ukrainian drone attacks to stop so that people could be more relaxed about taking internal flights.

Yelena, another Moscow resident, said she hoped disruptions to fuel supplies would end and prices would not rise too fast.

Others though, like Alexandra, who said she worked in Moscow’s swanky Tsum department store, said they were satisfied and were not looking for particular post-election changes.

“Things are good the way they are,” she said. REUTERS