Parliamentary elections in Russia: protests after the victory of the Kremlin party

The Kremlin party retains its two-thirds majority in Russia. The communists, who became the second strongest force, speak of electoral fraud. They want to demonstrate until the result in Moscow is canceled.

At 6:30 a.m. the time had come: the Central Election Commission announced that all votes had been counted. As expected, the Kremlin party United Russia emerged victorious from the parliamentary elections in Russia. Although it remains just below the 50 percent mark, it retains a two-thirds majority in parliament because of the 198 direct mandates that have been awarded to it.

Eight parties in the Duma in the future

A total of eight parties would be represented in the Duma in the future, said the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova. In addition to the established ones – United Russia, the Communist Party, the LDPR and Just Russia – three direct candidates from parties that are considered close to the Kremlin will move into the House of Commons.

Suspicion against new party

A new addition is the New People party, which made it just over the five percent hurdle. The center-right party was only founded last year by entrepreneur Alexei Nechayev. He offered the extra-parliamentary opposition to represent their interests. “Give us your ideas, give us your bills: We are ready to bring everything into parliament without claiming authorship – it stays with you,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether the extra-parliamentary opposition will get involved. Political observers had repeatedly pointed to the party’s links with the Kremlin. Suspicions have been voiced that the party was formed to retain protest voters.

Communist Party calls for protest

The Communist Party, in particular, has benefited from this, with just under 19 percent moving into parliament as the second largest force. A good result, but from the Communists’ point of view it should have turned out even better. The party speaks of electoral fraud. For this reason, she had already called for a protest in the center of Moscow yesterday. Several hundred people came. Among them were representatives of other opposition parties and supporters of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

“We will not leave the street”

In rare unanimity, they accused the Central Election Commission of manipulating the online voting in Moscow, for which around two million voters had registered. Direct candidates of the opposition were thus deprived of their sure victory in the last few meters of the count, said Valery Rashkin of the Communist Party.

“We warned President Putin that in case of election fraud, we would take to the streets. And we will not leave the streets until the fraudulent election results are canceled,” he said. The election must be repeated in Moscow.