Putin’s party struggles to win majority in parliament

United Russia set to take less than half of vote in polls amid widespread reports of electoral fraud

VLADIMIR PUTIN’S party, United Russia, has posted worse-than-expected results in the country’s parliamentary elections, despite months of voter suppression and intimidation tactics geared towards minimising turnout.

Exit polls and early results from the far east of the country showed United Russia winning less than half of the votes and the Communists making strong gains to more than 20 per cent, showcasing Russians’ significant disillusionment with Mr Putin’s party.

Voting concluded amid mounting reports of nationwide ballot stuffing and multiple voting. In the run-up to the three-day vote, a number of Kremlin critics, including allies of Alexei Navalny, were barred from running for the State Duma.

United Russia is facing an uphill battle to win a majority in parliament as its approval ratings recently hit a 13-year low. The party won just over 54 per cent of the vote in 2016, the last time a parliamentary election was held.

In an effort to counter the Kremlin’s repressive tactics, the opposition developed “Smart Voting”, a tactical voting campaign that endorses one of the registered non-united Russia candidates and tells citizens the most effective way of blocking the party’s candidates from winning in a given seat.

Leonid Volkov, Mr Navalny’s righthand man and the brain behind Smart Voting, yesterday conceded that some Navalny supporters might not be inclined to vote for the endorsed candidates, many of whom are Communists.

“Navalny’s party will fight for a spot in parliament in free and fair elections. But right now Smart Voting is a vote for Navalny.”

Mr Navalny, the Kremlin’s most formidable foe who was jailed in January for violating the terms of his probation, called on his supporters to back Smart Voting.

“Get the endorsement. Cast your ballot. Get someone else to do the same,” he said in a message from prison relayed by his lawyers yesterday.

Reports of election fraud poured in on Friday, and more documented cases of vote rigging came to light yesterday.

Golos, the association of election observers, had reported more than 4,000 instances of election violations by early yesterday afternoon.