Putin's United Russia Party retains majority in Parliamentary polls

In Russia, the ruling United Russia party of incumbent President Vladimir Putin has retained a majority in parliament after a three-day election. However, the party lost around one fifth of its support, showed the results. Concerns over living standards and allegations of corruption from jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have likely affected support for Putin's party. According to latest reports, over 33 per cent ballots have been counted so far with Putin's party winning over 45 percent of the votes while its nearest rival Communist Party polled around 22 per cent of the votes. While this indicates an emphatic win for the ruling United Russia party, it would be a weaker performance for the party when compared to the 2016 parliamentary election when it had won over 54 percent of the votes. 
The polls show that Putin remains a popular figure with many Russians crediting him for standing up to the West and restoring national pride. The result 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. A senior United Russia official, Andrei Turchak, said his party would win more than 300 of the 450 seats in the country's parliament, the State Duma. As per reports Putin's most vocal critics were barred from running in the election, and candidates who were allowed to stand were heavily vetted. There have been numerous allegations of ballot stuffing and forced voting. But Russia's electoral commission rejected claims of widespread irregularities.  independent vote monitoring group Golos - which the Russian authorities have branded "a foreign agent" - said on Sunday that it had tracked more than 4,500 reports of voting violations.Russia's interior ministry meanwhile told reporters that it had not registered any "significant violations".