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In its first election during the war, United Russia is expected to secure a record parliamentary majority.

News Mania Desk/ Piyal Chatterjee/ 21st September 2026

According to early results released on Monday, Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, is expected to win a record number of seats in the lower-house State Duma following the nation’s first legislative elections since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

With 95% of the ballots counted, Central Election Commission (CEC) chief Ella Pamfilova announced that United Russia got 57.83% of the party-list vote while dominating single-member districts, where its candidates were leading in 208 of 225 constituencies.

According to Pamfilova, United Russia is expected to secure roughly 355 seats in the 450-seat State Duma, easily retaining its constitutional supermajority and breaking its previous record of 343 seats achieved in 2016.

The Communist Party, with 40 seats, the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), with 25 seats, New People, with 20 seats, and A Just Russia, with four seats, were the other four parties that made it into parliament. According to the newspaper Kommersant, turnout was close to 60%, the highest for parliamentary elections since 2003.

The poll, which President Vladimir Putin presented as a gauge of public support for the war effort, was deemed by independent commentators to be the least competitive in contemporary Russian history. In the most recent State Duma convocation, at least 86 veterans of the conflict in Ukraine are anticipated to receive seats. Veterans who have entered politics have been hailed by Putin as Russia’s “new elite.”

In single-member seats, the leftist Yabloko party—the only one standing on an anti-war platform—was unable to win any seats. Yabloko was excluded from the party-list ballot in August by the Russian Supreme Court, and the government also exerted pressure on its candidates competing in single-member districts.

With an official 99.85% of the vote, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was re-elected in concurrent regional gubernatorial elections. The final official election results will be made public by Friday at the latest, according to the CEC.

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