Putin's United Russia Wins Polls Despite Smaller Vote Share

Despite a smaller share of the vote than in 2016 - and after a campaign marred by complaints of election fraud - United Russia, the ruling pro-Kremlin party, emerged on Monday as the clear winner in the country's parliamentary elections, Ulf Mauder and Christian Thiele reported for Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa).

Photo Insert: As expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin retained his grip on the country as his party came out of the elections on top.

United Russia came in at 49.8 percent, the election commission announced in Moscow after more than 95 percent of the votes had been counted. This is down from the 54.2 percent it got in 2016.

Observers attributed this to discontent at falling wages and rising prices. Polling before the election had projected United Russia with only 30 percent of the vote. Instead, the election commission declared an absolute majority for United Russia.

Nonetheless, any votes moving away from United Russia still hint at voters expressing some dissatisfaction with the current system and a subtle change in status. For that reason, observers noted that the Communist Party benefited from the drop in United Russia support, receiving 18.9 percent of votes, up from 13.35 percent five years ago.

The right-wing populist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) of ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky was projected to take 7.5 percent of votes, while the A Just Russia party received 7.5 percent. The New People party also cracked the 5-per-cent hurdle. Those three parties, plus United Russia and the communists will be the five parties in the next Duma, said Election Commissioner Ella Pamfilova.

But the non-United Russia parties do not fit the classical model of an opposition group. All are loyal to the current system of government and unlikely to block any major Kremlin initiatives. But United Russia lost its majority in Yakutia, also known as the Siberian Republic of Sakha, only coming in second with some 33 percent of votes, behind the communists at some 35 percent, which was an increase of almost 20 percentage points compared to the last elections, according to figures from the electoral commission.

The European Union (EU) and the United States (US) also criticized the elections. "These elections have taken place in an atmosphere of intimidating critical and independent voices," a spokesperson for the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell said in Brussels.

In the run-up, there had been an intensified crackdown on opposition politicians, the media, and civil society organizations. The spokesperson added that the EU would "never recognize the elections in illegally annexed Crimea," but that it was up to individual member states to recognize the Russian results as a whole.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the elections "took place under conditions not conducive to free and fair proceedings." The team of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, whose allies were prevented from running, spoke of the "dirtiest election" in years.

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