Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia’s parliamentary election, held during the war in Ukraine, showed public backing for his policies. The vote further tightened the Kremlin’s grip on the legislature in what was the first parliamentary election since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
With more than 97 per cent of votes counted from the three-day polling that ended on Sunday, election officials said the ruling United Russia party was set to win more than three-fourths of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, a record high. Turnout was more than 59 per cent of the 111 million eligible voters, the highest for a parliamentary election in more than a decade. Authorities spread voting over three days, held online voting in some regions and included illegally annexed parts of Ukraine.
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In televised remarks at a meeting with senior government members, his first public comments on the result, Putin said, “Such a record number of people who come to cast ballots shows that the people of Russia support our efforts aimed at strengthening the country.”
The election was held amid repeated Ukrainian drone attacks. On Sunday, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had shot down 1,110 drones overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 450 drones heading towards the capital were intercepted in what he called “the largest ever” attack on the city in an attempt to disrupt the vote. Officials said the attack damaged an oil refinery and a residential building, and killed three people and injured 38 in the wider Moscow region.
Referring to the attacks, Putin said, “They tried to hamper our efforts, to derail the election, as evidenced by the enemy’s continuous efforts to breach air defences around Moscow and in other regions.” He added, “But lines at polling stations have shown that Russia can’t be intimidated.”
The election was also the first to include residents of four regions of Ukraine that were seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later in 2022. At a polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters were seen putting ballots into a box under the watch of an armed Russian soldier. Voting was also held in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Kyiv called the voting in those regions illegal.
Putin also addressed Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. “Comrades, I want you to know that it was the vote for you. People trust you, they believe in our victory, believe in your courage, heroism and your devotion to the Motherland,” he said. He added, “I have no doubt that all the goals we set for the special military operation will be fulfilled,” using the Kremlin’s term for the war in Ukraine.
A large state media campaign and tight control over the election helped the Kremlin strengthen its political dominance despite economic troubles and long-range Ukrainian drone attacks. Preliminary results showed United Russia was on course to win between 347 and 355 seats in the Duma. The party won just under 58 per cent of the vote for the 225 seats chosen by party lists and also took 208 single-seat constituencies that make up the other half of the chamber.
Several smaller parties seen as part of the “systemic opposition”, which vote with the Kremlin on major issues, are set to take most of the remaining seats. Only a few seats are expected to go to candidates who ran without party affiliation. The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political group that publicly criticised the war, was removed from the ballot by Russia’s Supreme Court last month and had only a few dozen candidates in single-seat races. Preliminary results showed that none of its candidates won a seat.
The result gave United Russia an even stronger hold over parliament, while Putin described the turnout and the outcome as proof of support for the government’s policies during wartime.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
