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A woman throws her ballot into the ballot box in Tomsk
Photo: IMAGO/Kirill Kukhmar / IMAGO/ITAR-TASS
As expected, the regional elections in Russia on Sunday evening saw a broad victory for the Kremlin party »United Russia«.
In the Republic of Buryatia on Lake Baikal, for example, or in Sverdlovsk in the Urals, where governors were elected, the previous incumbents were ahead after counting the first votes, according to data from the central election commission.
In the Siberian region of Tomsk, too, the candidate from »United Russia« led in the evening.
The elections in more than 80 Russian regions were the first since the war against Ukraine began at the end of February - and they were overshadowed by massive allegations of manipulation.
The independent election observers from the Golos organization listed numerous signs of fraud while the election was still going on.
Even before the elections, there was criticism that members of the opposition who openly opposed the war in the neighboring country were not even allowed to vote.
The Russian Ministry of the Interior, on the other hand, said that no serious violations had been registered so far.
In addition to governors, local parliaments and district councils were also re-elected in many places.
A total of around 4,700 elections were scheduled at different levels.
More than 45 million Russians were called to vote.
czl/dpa