Putin with wife Ludmila
Photo: AFP
Exit polls: Putin's party wins over 60 percent of vote in parliamentary election
United Russia leading the field with 61 percent of the vote, with the Communists trailing far behind with 11.5 percent; party leader brushes off claims of fraud
President Vladimir Putin's party won more than 60 percent of the vote in Russia's parliamentary election Sunday, exit polls said.
United Russia was leading the field with 61 percent of the vote, with the Communists trailing far behind with 11.5 percent, according to the poll conducted by the state-owned All-Russia Opinion Research Center.
Two other pro-Kremlin parties - Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party and Just Russia - also made it into parliament with 8.8 and 8.4 percent of the vote, respectively. The nationwide poll was commissioned by the state-controlled Channel One television. Pollsters said United Russia's performance would give it a crushing majority of 306 seats in the 450-seat lower house, the State Duma.
Zhirinovsky's party and Just Russia, which are expected to act at the Kremlin's behest, would have 45 and 42 seats respectively.
'Election was a referendum'
The Communists, the only opposition force, will have 57 seats, said the poll which was based on face-to-face interviews with voters at 1,200 precincts across Russia. The margin of error was no more than 2 percentage points. Another nationwide poll, conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation - technically independent but considered Kremlin-friendly - showed United Russia winning with 62.3 percent of the vote.
It had the Communists coming in second with 11.8 percent, and Zhirinovsky's party and Just Russia trailing behind with 8.4 and 8.3 percent, respectively. The survey polled about 80,000 respondents and had a margin of error of 1 percentage point. Both polls were based on anonymous face-to-face interviews.
This method is usually considered less trustworthy than anonymous questionnaires because people may be reluctant to state their true preferences knowing they can be identified. The polls can be expected to overstate the support for United Russia.
United Russia party leader Boris Gryzlov told reporters that Putin's strong showing in the elections was a personal victory for and brushed off claims of vote fraud.
"This election was a referendum on President Putin so I think we can say he has won a victory," he said.
