Russia Election: Putin’s Party Retains Supermajority Securing 49.8% Of Votes Amid Allegations Of Manipulation

Russia Election: The ruling party’s win was unsurprising considering certain opposition candidates were not even allowed to run this year after authorities launched a crackdown on Kremlin critics.

File Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Russia's ruling party maintained its supermajority in parliament while ensuring President Vladimir Putin continues to retain his absolute power following the election that barred most opposition politicians and was also surrounded by multiple reports of violations.

According to the Central Election Commission, Results released on Monday from nearly 99 per cent of the country's polling stations had the ruling United Russia party gain 49.8 per cent of the vote for the 225 seats apportioned by parties, the Associated Press reported. 

As 225 lawmakers are chosen directly by voters, the results had United Russia candidates leading in 198 of those races.

The election is significant to ascertain whether Putin's absolute control had slipped, however slightly, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, even as it is unclear whether he will run again, choose a successor or outline a different path.

Whatever the plan may be, an obedient State Duma, or parliament, will be crucial to seeing it through.

As per the report by the Associated Press, Ella Pamfilova, the head of the commission, confirmed that United Russia has retained the so-called constitutional majority in the parliament, or at least two-thirds of the 450 seats necessary for the party to make changes to the country's constitution.

The results further indicate that there would be close to no opposition voices in the Duma at all as reportedly three other parties that usually toe the Kremlin line are set to take many of the remaining seats. The remaining three include the New People party, which was formed last year and is considered to be a Kremlin-sponsored project by many.

The head of Central Election Commission informed that candidates from three other parties each won a seat, so overall eight political parties will be represented in the Duma. 

Voter turnout stood at 51 per cent, she said, as reported by AP.

Allegations Of Manipulation In Results

The Communist Party received 19 per cent of the party-list vote, which is an improvement from the 13 per cent it secured in the 2016 election. United Russia saw some falloff as it had got about 54 per cent votes five years ago.

Meanwhile, concerns regarding the alleged manipulation in results have been reported on Monday, with many saying that a breakdown of the online voting in Moscow was still not available to the public.

The results in the other six regions that were allowed to vote online have been detailed. 

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s win was unsurprising considering that certain opposition candidates were not even allowed to run this year after Russian authorities launched a crackdown on Kremlin critics.

Organisations linked to imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny were declared extremist, and those associated were barred from seeking public office under a new law. 

Navalny is serving a 2-year prison sentence for violating parole over a previous conviction which he says is politically motivated.

Several other prominent opposition leaders either faced prosecution or were forced to leave the country under pressure.

There were also numerous reports of violations, including ballot-stuffing. 

As per reports, some videos on social media showed people trying to stuff thick piles of ballots into boxes after they had made flimsy attempts to block the view of surveillance cameras by raising mops or pieces of cardboard. Brawls with election monitors were also captured on camera, they said.

While Kremlin critics alleged violations in the manner reported during the 2011 parliamentary election, the head of Central Election Commission Pamfilova maintained that there were fewer this year than before. 25,830 ballots in 35 regions were invalidated, as reported by AP.

Putin Thanks Russians

Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin sees the election quite positively in terms of its “competitiveness, transparency and fairness”.

Referring to the turnout which was higher than in 2011, Putin thanked Russians for “the trust and for a proactive approach to life”, the agency stated.

Voting had to be extended to three days due to the coronavirus pandemic. In seven of Russia's 80-plus regions, voters were also offered the option of casting ballots online. 

While officials said that the measures were taken to reduce crowding at the booths during the pandemic, election monitors alleged that it created more scope for manipulating the results.

As per the AP report, the results pertaining to Moscow were particularly debated as nearly 2 million votes were cast online, and the results of some races changed dramatically at the last minute.

"Results of unverifiable fraudulent online voting in Moscow must be invalidated completely,” Navalny's top strategist Leonid Volkov wrote on Facebook.

(With Agency Inputs)