MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) - United Russia, commonly referred to as the "party of power", achieved landslide victories in two local elections Sunday, authorities said Monday.
Mirroring its recent triumph in the election to the Moscow City Duma, the pro-Kremlin party took comfortable majorities in legislatures in the central Russian regions of Tver and Tambov, where each voter received two ballots for a candidate in a single-mandate constituency and party-listed candidates.
In the Tver Region, whose regional center is 180 kilometers from Moscow (about 110 miles from Moscow), United Russia candidates took 33.23% of the vote in the 33-seat regional parliament.
In addition, the Communist Party (14.69%) also negotiated the 5% threshold of the vote needed to take up seats in the legislature, as did the patriotic parties Rodina (8.95%) and People's Will (7.75%), the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (7.41%), and the Agrarian Party (5.17%). In single-constituency voting, United Russia won 16 seats.
In the Tambov Region, 40.52% cast their votes for United Russia, 19.95% for the Communist Party and 9.7% for the LDPR. The remainder did not negotiate the 7% threshold set for the local parliament. In single-constituency voting, United Russia took 15 out of 25 seats. The Communist Party, the Agrarians and Rodina won two seats each, with four other seats going to independent candidates.
