President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is expected to continue to win big in parliamentary elections, despite a decline in support.
The party claimed victory hours after voting closed on Sunday evening.
Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic is barred from running in the election, and the candidates allowed to run are strictly curated.
There have been many allegations of ballot-balling violations and forced voting.
But Russia’s election commission rejected the claims of widespread irregularities.
Preliminary results show that with 64% of the vote counted, United Russia has won nearly 48%, followed by the Communist Party with about 21%.
On Sunday evening, a senior United Russia official, Andrei Turchak, congratulated a crowd of supporters in Moscow on what he described as a clean and honest victory.
Partial results show that although Putin’s party easily maintained its majority in parliament, it lost some power. In 2016, the party won 54% of the vote.
The Communists, who widely support Putin’s initiative in parliament, saw their support grow by 8%. But their leader, Gennady Zyuganov, has accused widespread abuses, including filling out the ballots, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Concerns over the standard of living and allegations of corruption from imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny may have swayed support for Vladimir Putin’s party.
But he remains popular with many Russians who praise him for defending the West and restoring national pride.
For the first time since 1993, election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were absent due to restrictions imposed by Russian authorities.
Thousands of Violation Reports
As of Sunday evening, the independent vote-monitoring group Golos — which Russian authorities have branded a “foreign agent” — said it had tracked more than 4,500 reports of voting violations.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Interior Ministry told reporters it had not recorded “significant violations”.
During the election, long queues were seen outside several polling stations on videos published on social media.
Interfax news agency reported, mainly outside the police station. A Kremlin spokesman dismissed the claims.
But Golos said he had received “many messages” from people saying they were forced by their employers to vote, as well as allegations of electoral fraud.
In eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists, residents with Russian citizenship are allowed to vote, with some crossing the border to visit Russian polling stations.
A Moscow permainan togel zaman digital pensioner who gave his name only as Anatoly told Reuters news agency he chose the ruling party because he appreciated Putin’s efforts to restore Russia’s influence on the world stage.
“Countries like the United States and Britain more or less respect us now as they respected the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 70s,” he said.