United Russia Wins Russia Wartime Parliamentary Election With 57.83% Vote, Central Election Commission Says

United Russia dominates vote

Russia’s ruling United Russia party dominated Russia’s first wartime parliamentary election after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the Central Election Commission saying United Russia won 57.83% of the vote after over 95% of votes were counted.

The Central Election Commission said the results would hand United Russia 355 seats in the 450-seat State Duma, giving the party a constitutional majority.

The election included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began, and it also included voting in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, said turnout stood at a little under 57% as of late Sunday, while Reuters reported that the vote began Friday for 111 million eligible voters and ended Sunday.

Nikolai Rybakov, leader of the Yabloko party, cast a ballot with a writing in Russian reading “For freedom” during the parliamentary election in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026.

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Dissent sidelined, violations alleged

Russia’s Supreme Court removed the liberal Yabloko party from the ballot last month, and BBC reported that “just 12 days after being registered it was removed from the ballot by the Supreme Court.”

Nikolai Rybakov told the BBC, “I don't think the Duma will change. They'll vote 100% for the policies of Putin just like they did.”

AP reported that Yabloko said one of its observers lost consciousness while being arrested by police at a St. Petersburg polling station on Saturday, after officials accused him of trying to “disrupt the elections” and called police.

The parties reported violations including sealed ballot boxes being opened, doors to polling stations not being secured overnight, and a refusal to issue paper ballots, and AP said the claims could not be independently verified.

The Kremlin sought to avoid political risks by stamping out any dissent, and AP said the election was virtually devoid of opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s policies.

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War backdrop and next steps

Ukraine’s drone attacks and cyberattacks formed the backdrop to the vote, and Euronews said Russia fired waves of drones at Moscow and the surrounding region on the final day of voting on Sunday, killing two people and setting an oil refinery on fire. Euronews reported that the Ukrainian attack involved around 1,600 drones, 450 of which were aimed directly at the capital, Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Russia’s Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova warned that “Over the past period, more than 1,000 waves of DDoS attacks have been recorded” against infrastructure involved in the electoral process, according to Euronews.

Reuters said President Vladimir Putin cast the election as a test of support for the war in Ukraine, and it said the Central Election Commission reported the results after over 95% of votes had been counted. The BBC said President Putin ruled out another wave of mobilisation, declaring, “There is no scenario today that would require it,” while the BBC also said the Kremlin is likely to treat the election result as a “mandate from the people” to continue the war.

Reporting for this sectionEuronewsBBC