Russia’s Ruling Party Sees Crumbling Majority

United Russia Seen Struggling Despite Claims of Election Fraud

by Jason Ditz, December 04, 2011

With the last few votes trickling in, the parliamentary elections today appear to be a major blow to the ruling United Russia Party, which is hovering around 50 percent of the popular vote, an unusual poor showing for the usually dominant faction.

The 2007 Duma Vote saw United Russia netting 64.30% of the popular vote and 315 of the 450 seats. The Communist Party was the second place finisher then with only 11.57% of the vote and 57 seats.

The Communists saw a big gain this time around, and are seen trending right around 19%. The Socialist Just Russia Party, a merger of several smaller parties, netted 13 percent and a third place showing. The Liberal Democratic Party run by the controversial Vladimir Zhirinovsky went from just over 8 percent in 2007 to around 12 percent this year.

Even though they gained impressively from the last time around, the Communist Party claimed “thousands” of reports of election fraud this time around. Though the election doesn’t appear to be a serious short-term threat to the Putin-Medvedev party’s political dominance, it does suggest that the voting public is drafting further away from them.

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