09/19/2021 4:48 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 9/19/2021 4:59 PM
The ruling United Russia party led the legislative elections this Sunday, according to the first results announced minutes after the closing of the last polling stations of elections that practically excluded the opposition against the Kremlin.
The party of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin
obtained 38.75% of the votes
, according to the results announced by the Electoral Commission once 9% of the electoral colleges had been counted.
They are followed by the KPRF communists (25.06%).
LDRP nationalists (9.4%)
are third, followed by the recently created "New People" formation and Just Russia centrists (6.67%).
According to an exit poll conducted for the state broadcaster Rossiya-24, United Russia
will win with 45.2% of the votes
, clearly ahead of the Communists (21%).
Elections in Grozny, Russia, AP Photo
In the previous legislative elections in 2016, United Russia
prevailed with 52.4%
of the vote and the Communists were second with 13.3%.
Authorities
prevented numerous
opposition
candidates
from running in this year's election.
Supporters of the jailed opponent
Alexei Navalni
asked to make "a smart vote" and bet on those candidates best placed to prevent the election of representatives of Putin's party.
The elections follow months of harsh repression against the opposition, which began with the arrest of Navalni in January.
Three days
In these elections, held from Friday to Sunday,
the majority of the 450 seats
in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament
,
are distributed
.
Some 108 million
Russians were eligible to participate in these elections, in which many opposition candidates could not stand.
Supporters of the jailed opponent Alexei Navalni called for
"a smart vote"
and bet on those candidates best placed to prevent the election of representatives of Putin's party.
In most cases they were the communists.
According to a leader close to Navalni, the best known of Putin's opponents, the Communists' result, if confirmed, is a success.
"The objective of the smart vote
was to break the monopoly of United Russia
and this is what has happened," Liubov Sobol said on the YouTube channel Navalny Live.
The vote was carried out after an intense wave of repression against the opposition, including the imprisonment of Navalni,
whose organization was banned as "extremist".
Opposition Alexei Navalni AP Photo
Before the vote, Navalni's main allies were arrested or fled the country, and anyone associated with his group was not allowed to contest the parliamentary election.
"It is an electoral simulation and that is something sad,"
said Andrei, a 33-year-old computer scientist, a voter in Moscow.
Participation exceeded 45% at 6:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT).
Fraud and censorship
In addition to removing opposition from the ballot, these elections were also marred by
allegations of censorship and fraud.
On Sunday, the independent electoral monitor Golos had received more than 3,850 complaints of possible electoral irregularities.
The authorities called Golos a "foreign agent".
On the other hand, when voting began on Friday, the companies Apple and Google eliminated Navalni's "smart vote" application, which informed its followers about which candidates to support to defeat the candidates aligned with the Kremlin.
In San Peterbusrgo, with the image of Navalni.
Photo EFE
Sources close to the decision by Google and Apple told AFP that
they did so under pressure from Russian authorities
, who threatened to arrest local staff of the tech giants.
Messaging app Telegram also removed Navalni's app on Friday.
Navalni's associates accused Google and Apple
of "giving in to the Kremlin's blackmail."
Google also blocked access to other content with these electoral slogans on Sunday morning: two videos published on YouTube - owned by Google - and two lists published in Google Docs.
Navalni's team reacted by posting
a similar video on YouTube
and copies of lists on Google Docs.
On Twitter, he gave instructions to download a virtual private network (VPN) to avoid blockades.
On Sunday, the jailed opponent again asked his compatriots to vote according to his slogans.
"Today, your vote really matters," he
posted on social media.
"Vote and convince others to do so. Please don't be lazy."
Before the Duma election,
United Russia had historically low backing.
Recent polls by the state-run VTsIOM revealed that less than 30% of Russians planned to vote for that party, 10% less than in the weeks leading up to the 2016 legislatures.
Although Putin, 68,
continues to have a good level of popularity,
United Russia has lost support in the face of declining living conditions after years of economic stagnation.
Another 13 parties participate in the elections, although in general they are considered as a false opposition and in the service of the Kremlin.
Source: AFP and EFE
PB
Look also
United Russia: 20 years of the Kremlin party, a copy of the Communist Party
Russians vote in an atmosphere of resignation, anger and fear