The ruling party United Russia has achieved a wide victory in the elections to the Duma, the Lower House of the Russian federal Parliament, by harvesting 57.86% of the votes. With this result, it leads by more than 40 points over the second most voted force and consolidates its constitutional majority again, according to the official data released by the Russian Central Electoral Commission (CEC), corresponding to 90.43% of the count.
Behind the party linked to President Vladimir Putin is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which reaches 13.84% of the votes, according to the figures from the CEC cited by the Russian agency Interfax. The third place is for the Liberal Democratic Party, with 8.9% support, followed by New People, which adds up to 7.94%.
In contrast, A Just Russia, with only 4.95% of ballots, is left out of the Duma as it does not exceed the required minimum threshold. Russian electoral regulations set the necessary percentage to access the Lower House at 5%.
Regarding participation, by 21:00 hours (local time in Moscow) it stood at 56%, the highest figure since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, as noted by the chairwoman of the Central Electoral Commission, Ela Pamfilova. This electoral process has been conditioned by the launch of nearly 2,000 drones by Ukraine, an offensive that has caused at least five fatalities.
The voting opened on Friday, September 18, and has lasted until this Sunday. Of the 450 seats in the Duma, half are assigned through party lists and the other half is elected in direct voting constituencies, thus combining proportional and majority representation.