After three days of voting for the State Duma elections (lower house of the Russian parliament), between September 18 and 20, the election registered a record participation in 15 years. Unsurprisingly, the ruling party “United Russia” maintains and expands its constitutional majority.
The head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, reported this Monday (21) that participation in Russia’s parliamentary elections reached a record high of 59.32%.
“I have already mentioned several records, but I want to mention one more — related to turnout. And this record specifically concerns the highest turnout in an election of this size. Look, yes, what the turnout was in previous years at the State Duma level, and now it has surpassed that figure, reaching more than 59%,” she said.
Biggest bench
After counting 95.18% of the votes, United Russia obtained 57.83% of the votes in the party lists, followed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with 13.81% and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia with 8.98%. The debutant cell in these elections, the Novo Povo party, received 7.96%. Just Russia is currently at 4.96%. Pamfilova stated that the party “has a good chance” of surpassing the 5% barrier clause.
According to the head of the Central Election Commission, United Russia will have 355 seats in the State Duma (301 seats are needed to achieve a constitutional majority); the Communist Party will have 40, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, 25. The New People party, 20, and Fair Russia, 4.
With this result, the ruling United Russia party reaches the largest bench in the Duma in its history. Previously, the party’s largest bench had been the one formed after the 2016 elections, with 343 deputies.
When speaking to the press this Monday, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to meet with Pamfilova, as well as with leaders and deputies of party groups. According to him, the Kremlin will announce these meetings as soon as the president defines the format of the meetings.
“Of course, the president hopes to meet with the head of the Central Election Commission, as well as with the leaders and deputies of the factions. All this will be on the president’s agenda, and as soon as the head of state defines the specific formats of these meetings, we will inform them,” Peskov told reporters.
Pamfilova noted that this year’s election campaign was conducted under an “unprecedented level of threats, particularly in Russia’s border regions.”
War continues
The last day of voting, Sunday (20), was marked, in particular, by a major attack by Ukrainian drones, especially over Moscow. More than 1,600 drones were launched against various Russian regions, of which 450 were intercepted in the direction of the Russian capital. It was the largest drone attack ever recorded against Moscow.
A refinery and residential areas were hit, causing fires. At least two people died and 20 were injured, according to Russian authorities.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said the Kiev attacks “had a very important impact on the Moscow region.” Putin, on the other hand, called on the population to consider the vote as a show of support for Russian troops.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
