United Russia both wins and loses in Sunday poll
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party is expected to take most seats in the State Duma in the result of the December 4 parliamentary elections.
The Central Election Commission summed up the preliminary results of the Sunday vote declaring that only four of the seven parties participating in the elections will be represented in the Duma. The United Russia received 49,67 percent of the votes. The Communist Party is the second with 19,13%, Sergei Mironov's Just Russia is the third with 13,18% and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's nationalist LDPR is the forth with 11,66%.
The other three parties, Yabloko, Mikhail Prokhorov´s "Right Cause" and the Patriots of Russia failed to clear the 7-percent election threshold. They received 3,25%, 0,54% and 0,96% respectively which will be distributed among the winning parties.
It is noteworthy that all parties, expect for the ruling United Russia, have improved their positions as compared to the previous elections.
During the 2007 elections, the United Russia took 64,30% of the votes, Communists -11,57% , Just Russia -7,74% and LDPR -14%.
More than 3000 candidates were competing for Russia's 450-seat State Duma.
According to Russian media, Russian President and head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev announced that the parties are likely to form a coalition.
"Taking into consideration the complicated composition of the State Duma we shall have to come to a coalition agreement on certain issues," he said.
