Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Russia held parliamentary elections on September 18 to elect 450 members of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly.

In addition, 39 regions chose legislative assemblies, seven regions elected governors, and municipal elections were held in 5,000 cities and towns.

The Crimea participated in a national election for the first time since seceding from Ukraine and reuniting with Russia in 2014.

The Central Election Commission reported that the United Russia was leading in Russian parliamentary election with 51.04 percent of votes. After 25 percent of ballots counted, the United Russia gained 51.04 percent, Liberal Democrats won 15.09 percent, Communist Party won 14.85 percent, and Just Russia won 6.42 percent.

The Russian prime minister officially announced the victory of the United Russia party in the 2016 parliamentary elections on September 18, Sputnik reported.

"I would like to thank all the citizens of our country who came to ballot stations today, demonstrated their civil position and voted. Moreover, a significant portion of them voted for the United Russia," Medvedev said at a meeting with the party’s activists, adding that it is safe to say that our party has won.

Earlier, it was reported that more than 111 million eligible voters were electing 450 lawmakers for the next five years. Voting was underway at some 95,000 polling stations across Russia and in diplomatic missions in 145 countries.

"The turnout as of 18:00 reached 39.37 percent," Central Election Commission Deputy Chairman Nikolay Bulaev said at a press conference on September 18.

In addition, the Russian nationals residing in Azerbaijan were casting their votes to elect members of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly.

Some 487 people participated in the elections.The elections were held in an organized way. No case of complaints has been reported. Observers from the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS countries, representatives of the media were present in the election process.

The majority of the Russian citizens in Azerbaijan voted for the ruling party.

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin has cast his vote at the polling station in the Russian Embassy.

The citizens of Russia permanently or temporarily residing in Azerbaijan could take part in the voting at the polling station #8017 at 17, Bakikhanov Street, Baku, Azerbaijan.

The polling station was open from 08:00 until 20:00 (GMT +4).

The last time Russia held a parliamentary election, in 2011, the capital erupted in mass protests. Fortunately, such cases were not observed this time.

In turn, Kremlin’s man in charge in this election Vyacheslav Volodin has previously told that this vote will be the cleanest in Russian history.

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