MOSCOW
President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party secured more than 49% of votes in parliamentary elections, the country’s election commission said on Monday.
In a statement, Ella Pamfilova, head of the Central Electoral Commission, said that the voter turnout was 51.68%.
As 99.69% percent of votes have been counted until now, Pamfilova said, out of the 14 political parties, five of them passed the threshold to make it to the State Duma, the lower house of the parliament.
Pamfilova described the election result as "an expansion of the political diversity," according to Russia's TASS news agency.
The United Russia secured 49.85%, the Communist Party of Russia 18.96%, the Liberal-Democratic Party 7.5%, and Fair Russia 7.44% as well as the New People 5.33% to pass the election threshold.
According to the news agency, the Central Election Commission head said the final results will be announced on Friday.
