MOSCOW (AFP) — President Vladimir Putin's party won a huge majority in Russian parliamentary elections Sunday tainted by fraud allegations, early results showed, paving the way for the Kremlin leader to retain power after leaving office.
The United Russia Party won 62.3 percent of the vote, according to official results with 12 percent of the ballots counted and with opposition complaints mounting.
United Russia and its allies, A Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party would enter the State Duma with a collective 86.3 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll by the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion.
Under the proportional representation system used their share of the 450 seats will be even higher.
The election followed a campaign marred by accusations that the Kremlin rigged the contest, using controversial new election laws and state media to ensure a triumph for the president's party.
The opposition Communist Party said it would challenge the results at the Supreme Court. Communist legal chief Vadim Solovyev told RIA Novosti news agency there were "violations exceeding all acceptable norms."
Solovyev said some 300,000 Communist party observers had recorded more than 10,000 voting day violations.
The main European election watchdog withdrew plans for a monitoring mission in Russia, complaining of a lack of cooperation from Moscow, and Western governments have been increasingly strident in their criticism of Putin's tactics.
Putin, 55, said before the election that a big victory would give him a "moral" mandate to retain a major role when he steps down next year after two consecutive Kremlin terms, the maximum allowed by the constitution.
Speculation is centering on whether the ex-KGB agent will seek to keep power through a new post or behind the scenes while a loyalist takes over the presidency in elections next March 2.
Eleven parties participated in the election, but United Russia, whose lead candidate was Putin, had always been forecast to get an overwhelming win.
Putin is widely popular thanks to huge revenues from energy exports, steadily rising living standards and a restored sense of national pride following the post-Soviet trauma.
"I voted for United Russia. Life's got better under Putin," said Mohammed Egemberdiyev, a 43-year-old plumber, after casting his ballot at a polling station in central Moscow.
In a pre-election speech, Putin warned Russians to vote for United Russia or risk the "disintegration" of their country. He also described as "jackals" his pro-Western liberal opponents.
But the beleaguered opposition, ranging from liberals to the Communists, charges the Kremlin with suppressing debate, dominating state television, confiscating election leaflets and arresting activists.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said the election had been the "least democratic" ever held in post-Soviet Russia and there had been "numerous violations," ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
"We have seen a campaign of unprecedented pressure on the voters," said Alexander Kynev at Golos, an independent voter watchdog body which receives EU and US government funds.
Former chess champion turned bitter Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, who spent five days behind bars last week for taking part in an unauthorised anti-Putin protest, deliberately spoiled his ballot Sunday, saying "these elections are rigged."
There was also concern in the West, where relations with Russia have become increasingly tense under Putin, who controls the world's largest energy reserves.
In an highly unusual step, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) boycotted the polls, citing a lack of cooperation from Moscow.
Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, told German radio on the eve of the election that, "we have noticed the restrictions on the possibility for activists to express their civil rights."
A spokeswoman for US President George W. Bush said Friday: "We are concerned that people would not be able to have the free and fair elections that they deserve."
Putin, whose anti-Western rhetoric has steadily mounted ahead of the election, in turn accused the OSCE of playing politics with backing from Washington to discredit the vote.
The Kremlin vowed that the elections would be free and fair.
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