United Russia Party Leads as Exit Polls, Preliminary Elections Results Released

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russians were electing 450 members of parliament for the next five years. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s United Russia dominated State Duma’s outgoing convocation with 238 seats.

The poll by Russian public opinion researcher VTsIOM predicted that United Russia would secure 44.5 percent of votes, down from 49.32 percent in 2011. The pollster projected that three other parties had made it into Russia's new State Duma. The Liberal Democrats look set to grab 15.3 percent of votes, trailed by the Communist Party with 14.9 percent and center-left A Just Russia with 8.1 percent.

Another poll by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed that United Russia is set to get 48.7 percent of the vote, followed by the Communist Party with 16.3 percent, the Liberal Democrats with 14.2 percent and A Just Russia with 7.6 percent.

After counting 8.4 of the votes, the Central Election Commission said United Russia had received 45.2 percent so far. The Liberal Democrats got 17.75 percent, followed by the Communists with 17 percent and A Just Russia with 6.3 percent.

The liberal Yabloko party appears to not have cleared the needed votes after getting just over 3 percent according to both exit polls. Preliminary Election Commission data gave the party 1.4 percent. With the given amount of support the party would not enter the Russian parliament but would be eligible to receive state funding if the 3 percent barrier is cleared.

Other parties, such as the Communists of Russia, Rodina, the Party of Growth, the People's Freedom Party and the Greens all received less than 3 percent of the vote, according exit polls.