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Putin's party dominates elections

September 14, 2015

Russian President Putin's ruling party swept the governor's seat in all 21 regions along with 11 regional legislatures in local and regional elections. An independent polling monitor said the results were predetermined.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GWAO
Russia People at polling booths
Image: Getty Images/AFP/D. Serebryakov

United Russia - the ruling party of President Vladimir Putin - dominated regional and local elections on Sunday.

The party won the governor's seat in all 21 regions where elections were held, along with 11 regional legislatures.

Results released on Monday show that only one of the 21 candidates put forth by United Russia pulled less than 50 percent of the vote.

The opposition party RPR-Parnas only gained approval to contest the regional parliament in largely rural Kostroma, where it gained less than 2 percent of the vote.

'Honest job fighting'

RPR-Parnas regional leader and activist Ilya Yashin on Monday conceded defeat in the Kostroma elections.

"We did an honest job fighting against the giant machine," Yashin said in a Facebook post.

"We've lost. Parnas' actual result, not counting ballot-stuffing and fraud…is higher than the official, but not significantly," the local opposition leader said.

'Overwhelmingly predetermined'

Meanwhile, independent polling monitor Golos said on Monday that it received more than 200 complaints regarding electoral violations, including hampering with monitors' work and multiple votes cast by voters.

"The results of the election were overwhelmingly predetermined by decision and actions of the current government and election authorities…as early as at the stage of nominating and registering candidates and parties," Golos' report on the election said, according to AP news agency.

Golos added that the lack of competition in the political sphere illustrated the government's influence over the results.

ls/rg (AP, EFE)