MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Russia’s ruling United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, retained its parliamentary majority after an election.
With 85% of ballots counted on Monday, the Central Election Commission said United Russia had won nearly 50% of the vote, with its nearest rival, the Communist Party, at just under 20%.
Although that amounts to an emphatic official win, it is a slightly weaker performance for United Russia than at the last parliamentary election in 2016, when the party won just over 54% of the vote.
Western-backed blogger Alexei Navalny’s allies cried foul, claiming the election was in any case a sham.
Electoral authorities said they had voided any results at voting stations where there had been obvious irregularities and that the overall contest had been fair.
The outcome looks unlikely to change the political landscape, with Putin, who has been in power as president or prime minister since 1999, still dominating ahead of the next presidential election in 2024.
The 68-year-old leader remains a popular figure with many Russians who credit him with standing up to the West and restoring national pride.
The near complete results showed the Communist Party finishing in second, followed by the nationalist LDPR party and the Fair Russia party with just over 7% each. All three parties usually back the Kremlin on most key issues.
A new party called “New People”, appeared to have squeezed into parliament with just over 5%.
At a celebratory rally at United Russia’s headquarters broadcast on state television, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, an ally of the Russian leader, shouted: “Putin! Putin! Putin!” to a flag-waving crowd that echoed his chant.
Allies of Navalny, who is serving a jail sentence for parole violations, had encouraged tactical voting against United Russia, a scheme that amounted to supporting the candidate most likely to defeat it in a given electoral district.
In many cases, they had advised people to hold their noses and vote Communist.
Golos, an election watchdog accused by authorities of being a foreign agent, claimed thousands of violations. The Central Election Commission said it had recorded 12 cases of ballot stuffing in eight regions and that the results from those polling stations would be voided.
One Moscow pensioner who gave his name only as Anatoly said he voted United Russia because he was proud of Putin’s efforts to restore what he sees as Russia’s rightful great-power status.
“Countries like the United States and Britain more or less respect us now like they respected the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 70s. ... The Anglo-Saxons only understand the language of force,” he said.