With just 9% of ballots counted nationwide, the Central Election Commission said United Russia had won 38.57% of the vote.
Separately, an exit poll conducted by INSOMAR and published by Russia’s RIA news agency predicted United Russia would win just over 45% of the vote.
The party won just over 54% of the vote in 2016, the last time a parliamentary election was held. It has since faced a slump in its popularity due to malaise over years of faltering living standards.
Initial results showed the Communist Party finishing in second place with 25.17% of the vote, followed by the nationalist LDPR party with 9.6%.
Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had urged Russians to follow his tactical voting strategy, which amounts to supporting the candidate most likely to defeat United Russia in a given electoral district. (Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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Why does Putin not call it the Putin Party instead of the elaborate and totally meaningless United Russia party ? Is it an undiagnosed case of modesty, which is very unbecoming and out of character for him ? He simply declares those who disagree with him “extremists” instead of contestants and bans their organisations, and sends them to jail ! AND then he still can’t get a ‘majority ! Why bother to have pretend elections ? Just do what most of the middle eastern autocrats do – just appoint themselves rulers – so simple ! Or like lord Xi, become ruler for life. Life would be so much easier that way … or like in America … claim an election was ‘stolen’ … but produce no substantiating evidence ! Like Satchmo would say … “What a Wonderful World!” we live in… but don’t say it aloud !