With more than 99 percent of the votes already counted, United Russia is leading the way with a firm victory and an expected 315 out of 450 seats in the new Duma after Sunday's parliamentary elections. United Russia, which had chosen President Vladimir Putin to head its election list, is getting over 64 percent of the votes according to preliminary results. Three more parties managed to get into the Duma - the Communists received about 12 percent of the votes, the Liberal Democratic Party got about 9 percent and the freshly founded Just Russia party managed to pull about 8 percent of the votes. The other parties that took part in the parliamentary poll got significantly less. In fact, none of them - including the liberal opposition parties Yabloko and SPS - managed to overcome the three percent threshold which would allow the return of the 60 million ruble (about $2.4 million) campaign fee.
This year, Russia's parliamentary elections were held according to new rules. The new law increased the minimum threshold of votes needed to get in parliament to 7 percent; abolished the minimum turnout requirement; annuled the "against all" vote and single mandate constituencies. These were election features that in theory allowed for elections to be held again if none of the candidates received sufficient support.
However, public turnout in the elections was so high that the abolition of the minimum turnout threshold did not seem necessary. More than 63 percent of Russians chose to cast their votes, making the 2007 elections the most popular in the past eight years. It also attracted special thanks from Vladimir Putin. "I want to thank Russian citizens, all voters, for a high turnout," the president said on Monday. "Special thanks to those who voted for United Russia, whose election list I headed. This is healthy evidence of trust."
All the parties that made it into the Duma, with the exception of the Communist Party, seemed satisfied with the results, although some media were apparently upset that Putin could not join United Russia members at party headquarters.
The president praised United Russia's "success," calling it a "good victory."
"United Russia gained the constitutional majority in parliament and bolstered its positions. I hope that United Russia does not let us down," he said. Putin noted, meanwhile, the debut of A Just Russia, which passed the 7 percent margin in its "first try."
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky first told journalists that he was happy with the results, but later said he had been hoping for more. "We got the percent that we always get," he said early Monday morning. "Our constituency has been voting for us for 15 years."
A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov was also satisfied with the results. There were rumors, however, that he had proposed to forge a coalition with the Communists under the "social democratic" slogan, but his request was apparently turned down.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, speaking at a press conferences at party headquarters in the hours after the elections, criticized the vote as flawed and said his party was preparing to issue complaints on alleged violations. Zyuganov's party, which got about one percent fewer votes than in the 2003 elections, was also planning a series of protests in the coming days.
Asked about the possibility of forming a coalition, Zyuganov said he was willing to work with anyone who wanted to live in a "normal country," but indicated that there was no talk of forming a bloc with any other party.
Trust was an important issue in these elections as there had been a problem with international monitors before the election even started. The ODIHR - the elections arm of the OSCE - announced that it had cancelled its attendance citing visa problems. Russia responded harshly and President Putin said Washington was behind the decision.
Officials in the Central Electoral Commission also saw the long arm of Washington behind the alleged violations at the polls. "The statements made by these monitoring missions are not, to our regret, reflecting the objective reality, but reproduce the singsong tone which has been set in Washington... and was immediately repeated by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights," the Gazeta daily quoted a member of the Central Electoral Commission as saying.
The preliminary results of this year's Duma elections differ dramatically from those of the 2003 elections. Then, United Russia finished first with 37.5 percent, and the Communists came in second with 12.6 percent. The Liberal Democratic party got 11.5 percent and the Rodina bloc (a nationalist movement, which was one of the founding members of the Just Russia party) got 9 percent of the votes.
By Kirill Bessonov
