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Russia’s State Duma elections have ended with United Russia securing a constitutional majority of 355 seats out of 450 in the country’s single-chamber legislature, according to figures released by the Central Election Commission (CEC) chair Ella Pamfilova on Monday morning. With such a supermajority, President Vladimir Putin’s party will have the opportunity to amend Russia’s constitution as it sees fit without having to negotiate with other parties in the Duma.
According to exit polls conducted by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) and published by TASR on the basis of a report by news agencies AFP and Interfax, the United Russia party gained 49.4 percent of votes. As tallies from individual polling stations were added up throughout the night, however, UR’s share of party list votes rose to 57.82 percent. Thus the party secured a constitutional majority of 301 seats – by 54 seats.
In addition to United Russia, five more parties had surpassed the 5% barrier, which was necessary to be granted seats in Duma. These include Communist Party of Russia (KPRF), scored 13.80%, followed by LDPR under leader Leonid Slutsky who managed to garner 8.99% of the votes, or 7.97% for New People, a centrist party, and a mere 4.96% for A Just Russia — Patriots — For Truth party, earning them 40, 25, 20 and 4 seats in the lower chamber respectively.
VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center), a state-run institute, released an exit poll on Sunday night. TASR news agency reported on the matter in its morning edition on Monday based on an AFP and Interfax dispatch from the previous night. The high turnout, a record 59%, was also confirmed by Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova on Monday.
No separate results were published for the territories of annexed Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions where the voting took place for the first time within the frame of Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territories. Congratulations on the results of the Russian elections have been extended by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The State Duma elections took place during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and against the backdrop of Russia’s foreign policy reorientation towards the non-Western countries. Russia’s parliament is expected to quickly ratify a number of agreements with the Asian trade partners of Russia now that the country’s parliament is in the hands of United Russia.
This was the first State Duma elections since the 2021 Russian legislative elections and the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The vote featured five parties that had cleared the 5% threshold to enter Duma elections, with no space for other significant opposition parties and their candidates.
