Putin's United Russia party dominates polls

Russian President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party on Sunday garnered 46.2 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results from the electoral commission.

"We can say with certainty that the party has won," Putin told United Russia members at the party's headquarters in Moscow.

The Russian president told party members that although "things are tough" concerning the economy, United Russia lawmakers "are really working hard even though it does not always work."

The preliminary results show a 3 percent drop in support compared to their 2011 election victory with 49.3 percent. The right-wing LDPR came in second place with 17.2 percent, while the Communist party garnered 16.6 percent.

The Kremlin-friendly, pro-business Just Russia party picked up 6.5 percent, putting them fourth in the electoral race.

No other party passed the 5 percent threshold for the 450-seat State Duma, including several opposition parties.

Sunday's polls have been tarnished by reports of voting irregularities, including voter fraud in Siberia's Altai region.

'Wasn't sterile'

Ella Pamfilova, Russia's election commission chief, said there was no reason to nullify the results, although she admitted that the election "wasn't sterile" with at least three confirmed reports of ballot stuffing at polling stations.

Election monitoring group Golos received more than 2,000 complaints of suspected vote rigging from across the nation by early afternoon. The violations included long lines of servicemen voting where they were not registered to do so.

Sunday's elections marked the first time voters in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine through an internationally-condemned referendum in 2014. Voters on the peninsula were also electing regional leaders.

Voter turnout was markedly lower than the previous elections, with just under a 40 percent turnout three hours before polls closed.

Russia ranked 132 in the Economist Intelligence Unit's democracy index for 2015, placing in the "authoritarian" category.

ls/sms (Reuters, AFP)