Russia's ruling party on track to keep supermajority in election marked by hundreds of reported violations

Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, is on course to secure a constitutional majority in the State Duma, according to preliminary results from the country’s three-day parliamentary election.

With 90.43% of protocols processed as of Monday morning, United Russia officially has 57.86% of the vote from party lists, or 29.7 million votes. In the 2021 Duma elections it won 49.82%, or 28 million votes. The Communist Party (KPRF) has 13.84%, the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) has 8.90% and the New People party 7.94%. A Just Russia, at 4.95%, is hovering around the 5% threshold needed to enter the Duma.

United Russia candidates are leading in 208 of the 225 single-mandate districts, and the Central Election Commission's data show them winning more than 50% of the vote in a number of regions, including Adygea, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Dagestan, Kalmykia, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Combined with its share of party-list seats, that would put the party well over the 300 seats needed for a constitutional majority in the 450-seat chamber.

Turnout exceeded 56% by the time polls closed, higher than in the 2021 Duma elections. Participation in the federal remote electronic voting system reached 90.87%.

In Moscow, United Russia candidates are leading in all 16 single-mandate districts. On the final day of voting, polling stations went for several hours without issuing paper ballots because of a technical failure, which led to long queues.

In direct elections for the heads of eight regions, all incumbents and acting governors are in the lead. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has 99.85% of the vote with 100% of protocols counted, and Tuva's Vladislav Khovalyg has 90.95%. Others include Artyom Zdunov in Mordovia (78.44%), Alexei Russkikh in the Ulyanovsk region (76.65%), Oleg Melnichenko in the Penza region (70.92%) and Vitaly Korolyov in the Tver region (69.8%). The lowest result belongs to Alexander Shuvaev, the acting governor of the Belgorod region, who has 65.97% with all protocols counted.

Meanwhile, the anti-war Yabloko party, which the Russian Supreme Court barred from the State Duma party lists over alleged copyright violations, is on track to enter the Novgorod regional Duma with 6.2% of the vote, with 96.86% of protocols counted. The party has not yet won any single-mandate districts.

The Central Election Commission is due to publish preliminary results at 11:00 Moscow time on Monday. Final results will not be announced before 25 September.

Observers and independent monitoring groups reported hundreds of possible violations throughout the three days of voting, including the mass removal or barring of observers, pressure on state employees to vote, suspected ballot stuffing in Syktyvkar and the Mari El Republic, and problems with ballot storage. BBC News Russian reported that in several regions public-sector workers were given lottery tickets with individual numbers to be scanned when they voted. Voters in Moscow, the Belgorod region, Buryatia, the Krasnodar region and the Lipetsk region also said they arrived at polling stations to find they had supposedly already voted. On the last day, police in Perm detained a New People observer over an unmarked military summons, according to the outlet Yashcheritsa, and released him after two hours.