Putin’s United Russia party sweeps local and regional elections unopposed

United Russiathe party of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has swept the local and regional elections without real opposition which ended on Sunday and in which some voters in the border regions with Ukraine were unable to participate due to the proximity of the fighting.

According to data provided this Monday by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), in the 21 regions where governors were elected, the current governors will repeat their positions, all of them pro-government.

In the region Kursk, where Ukrainian troops stormed on August 6 and currently control about a hundred towns, its current acting governor was elected, Alexei Smirnov, with 65.28% of the votes.

According to Russia’s top electoral authority, although the elections were not held in several municipalities bordering Ukraine, turnout in the region was 61.56%.

In the legislative assembly or Duma of Moscow, United Russia took over 38 of its 45 seats, while the Communist Party got only three.

Citizen participation in the Russian capital, where voters were able to exercise their right to vote for three days in person and also online, it was close to 41%.

Ukrainian regions

A total of 83 of Russia’s 89 federal entities held local elections between Friday and Sunday, including the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, annexed in September 2022 and which Moscow does not yet fully control.

In addition, three deputies of the State Duma, or lower house of the Russian Parliament, were elected to fill vacant seats.

Three former ministers of state won in the three single-seat constituencies.

According to the CEC and the Russian Interior Ministry, no violations were recorded during the election that could have influenced its outcome.

“We can say that the elections were held in a fair manner “exemplary, transparent, clear and in accordance with current regulations”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today, commenting on the elections during his daily telephone press conference.

He stressed that all the governors in office “obtained very good results and won the elections by a wide margin.”