MOSCOW — The main party supporting President VladimirPutin led rivals by a large margin in Russia's parliamentaryelections Sunday, according to partial official results.
Putin is seeking a solid majority to put his firm stamp on acountry still setting its course for the future after seven decadesof Soviet rule. Exit polls also indicated a big win for Putin andhis allies.
With less than 3 percent of votes counted nationwide, thepro-Putin United Russia party led with 36.46 percent, while thenationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia was second with15.61 percent, said Alexander Veshnyakov, chairman of the CentralElection Commission.
The Communist Party, considered United Russia's biggest rival,came in third with 13.26 percent, he said.
Veshnyakov said two Western-leaning parties -- the Union ofRight Forces and Yabloko -- each garnered less than 4 percent,meaning that if those trends continued they would not reach theminimum necessary to enter the parliament as parties.
However, those parties were expected to pick up more votes asthe count proceeded westward from the sparsely populated east,where United Russia and the Communists have polled particularlystrongly. Both the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko parties havetheir strongest support in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other largecities in western Russia, which also have more voters.
The election took place over 11 time zones from Siberia's frozenwastes to the war-wrecked wasteland of Chechnya to the westernmostBaltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad. The pro-Kremlin United Russiaparty hoped the vote would increase its control over the 450-seatState Duma, the lower house of parliament, as the popular Putinheads for what seems certain to be a second term in a Marchpresidential ballot. The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, led byirreverent nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, almost always votesthe Kremlin line in parliament.
Analysts said United Russia and its allies were angling for atwo-thirds majority required to make constitutional changes -- alever they could use to extend Putin's term or let him run for athird term. Such a constitutional change would also need theapproval of the pliant upper parliament house and two-thirds ofRussia's regional legislatures.
More might in the Duma would also make it easier for Putin topush through the sometimes unpopular market-oriented economicreforms he has promised and cut the bureaucracy that stiflesRussian growth. Kremlin critics, however, fear too much power couldprompt a drift closer to authoritarianism.
In the voting, 225 Duma seats are distributed proportionallyamong parties who cross the 5-percent threshhold, according totheir precentages in the results. The other 225 seats are filled bythe winners of individual district races, who may or may not beaffiliated with a party.
An exit poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation forRussia's Channel One state television gave United Russia 37 percentof the vote, to the Communists' 15 percent.
They were followed by the nationalist Liberal-Democratic Partyof Russia with 12 percent, the Homeland bloc with 9 percent, andthe two Western-leaning parties with 6 percent each.
The election inspired little excitement among voters. Two hoursbefore polls were to close, turnout was 47.6 percent, significantlylower than the 53.9 percent recorded at the same time during thelast Duma vote, in 1999.
Security was tightened across much of the country after abombing attack Friday that killed 42 people on a commuter trainnear Chechnya. Putin called the attack an attempt to destabilizethe country ahead of the election.
Many Russians have been losing interest in voting as the forcedparticipation of the Soviet era recedes and disillusionment withtoday's stage-managed democracy grows.
As the count began on the Pacific Coast, voters in Moscow werestill trudging through slush to mark their ballots and slip theminto white plastic urns at polling places set up in schools andother public buildings.
Nikolai, a 54-year-old entrepreneur in Moscow who gave only hisfirst name, said he did not vote for United Russia ''because thestate is in danger: the danger of single-party rule.''
United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov, who is also the country'sinterior minister, made a last-minute appeal aimed to get out thevote, urging people in televised comments Sunday to ''wake up'' andcast their ballots.
Putin and his wife Lyudmila cast their ballots at a freshlyrenovated research institute in Moscow, an occasion he described as''the most important event of the day'' -- beating out the birth ofeight puppies to the president's favorite dog, which Putin saidkept his family up half the night.
Throughout the campaign, state-run television ceaselesslycriticized United Russia's opponents, particularly the CommunistParty, accusing leaders of living large while its humble supportersstruggle to survive in an economy that has continued to grow sincePutin came to power three years ago, but remains overly dependenton oil revenues.
The coverage raised concern from the Organization of Securityand Cooperation in Europe, which is monitoring the elections.Allegations have also arisen about negative campaigning.
''I always go to vote because I don't want my vote to be used bysomeone else,'' said Valery Chernyshyov, a 39-year-old laborer inMoscow. ''I was involved in politics in the past and I know all thedirty tricks.''
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