Vladimir Putin's party wins Russian polls

Russian citizens in Zimbabwe at the weekend exercised their democratic right to vote in legislative elections in their country with near final results yesterday showing an emphatic victory for the ruling United Russia party which backs President Vladimir Putin.

There were slightly more than 100 eligible voters among the Russian community in Zimbabwe.

On Sunday, during elections to the State Duma - the lower chamber of the Parliament (the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation) - the turnout was high, surpassing 50 percent. With nearly all the ballots having been counted, the Central Election Commission said United Russia had won nearly 50 percent of the vote, with its nearest rival, the Communist Party, taking just under 19 percent.

The victory margin means United Russia will have more than two-thirds of deputies in the 450-seat State Duma. In a statement yesterday, the Russian embassy in Harare thanked local media for helping to spread information on the existence of a polling centre in Zimbabwe, which enabled Russians resident locally, to cast their votes.

"The Embassy of Russia is grateful to The Herald for the additional efforts to attract public attention to a polling station organised on the Embassy's premises with the strict adherence of the Covid-19 restrictions maintained by the Government of Zimbabwe. "As the Central Election Commission counts the ballot papers, it is evident that the elections have been conducted in a smooth and orderly manner all across Russia.

"The Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly Mrs Valentina Matvienko announced that the elections were democratic, transparent and legitimate.

"She noted that the campaign had proved the effectiveness of the electoral legislation. Preliminary data indicated that the activity of citizens in the elections was quite high," said the embassy.

The Speaker of the Federation Council also noted that no serious violations that could have changed the course of voting, were recorded. "Election campaign confirmed the steadiness of the democratic process in Russia," she added. Poll observers fielded by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to monitor the Russian elections also did not record any significant violations that would affect the voting results. Head of the CIS observer mission Ilhom Nematov affirmed this position saying public safety was fully guaranteed during the balloting process.

Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said: "Police provided 24-hour security of the voting premises and made sure that no disturbances to public order would affect the voting results."

Over 20 overseas organisations operating in Russia attempted to influence the results of the country's parliamentary elections. This was revealed by Vassily Piskarev, the head of the State Duma Commission investigating foreign interference in Russia's domestic affairs.

Officials had been locked in a row with the American tech giants in recent weeks over claims the companies allowed access to "Smart Voting" resources promoted by political extremists banned under a court ruling. In the lead-up to the elections, Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, issued a stern warning to Apple and Google as well as VPN service providers Cloudflare and Cisco. In response, Apple and Google removed the "Smart Voting" app from their platforms.