DHAKA: Russia President Vladimir Putin-backed United Russia party is well ahead in the running parliamentary poll in the country on Monday (September 19).

Putin said his party had ‘achieved a very good result’, BBC reports.

The nationalist LDPR and the Communist party are behind with about 14-16% each.

Liberal opposition parties appear to have failed to pass the 5% threshold needed for party-list representation.

However, earlier exit polls suggest they could still get seats in individual constituencies.

A VTsIOM exit poll gave United Russia, led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, 44.5%, with the Public Opinion Foundation putting its total higher, at 48.7%.

Partial official results later confirmed a large lead. With most of the ballots counted, United Russia had won more than 50% of the vote.

Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said she was ‘fully confident that the elections are proceeding in a quite legitimate way’.

Voters will choose 450 MPs in the State Duma (lower house), for the next five years. The outgoing Duma had majority of the MPs in support of Putin.

Far Eastern regions were the first to vote in the largest country of the world spanning 11 time zones.

Their last parliamentary election was held in 2011 with accusations of ballot box fraud.

For the first time, Russia is holding elections in Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned internationally.

BDST: 1412 HRS, Sep 19, 2016
NR/RR