United Russia to get 238 mandates in State Duma - CEC Chairman Churov
GORKI, Moscow region. Dec 6 (Interfax) - With 99.999% of the ballots cast in the Sunday elections to the State Duma processed, United Russia will apparently have 238 mandates in the 6th State Duma, the Communist Party 92, A Just Russia 64, and the Liberal Democratic Party 56, Central Elections Commission (CEC) Chairman Vladimir Churov said.
Meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday, Churov said nearly all ballots except several dozens cast abroad have been processed.
This information shows that voter turnout in the Sunday elections was 60.2%, which is 3% less than in 2007 and 5% more than in 2003, Churov said.
He suggested that voter turnout could have been larger if weather had been better in the Far East and in the Central European part of Russia. Nevertheless, "the change in voter turnout is absolute not catastrophic," he added.
Medvedev noted that this is quite a large turnout for any developed country.
As for the number of votes given for the parties that ran in the elections, 32.348 million people (49.3% of all those who came to the polling stations) voted for United Russia, 12.5 million (19.2%) for the Communist Party, 8.7 million people (13.25%) for A Just Russia, and 7.66 million (12%) for the Liberal Democratic Party, Churov said.
Among the parties that did not overcome the 7% election threshold, Yabloko garnered most of the votes (2.251 million, or 3.43%).
As a party that got more than 3% of the vote, Yabloko is entitled to financing from the federal budget in an amount of more than 40 million rubles and free airtime in the next elections, Churov said.
