MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. Members of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) unanimously ruled that the September 18 elections to the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, were legitimate and the results were valid, Ella Pamfilova, the CEC chairperson, announced on early Friday.
CEC members will do serious and detailed ‘after-action review’ with regional election commissions, she said. "These feedback sessions will be really serious," she indicated.
She believes that, on the whole, the CEC to re-establish the Russian electorate’s full trust in elections but it anyway ensures transparency of the procedures.
The State Duma elections were held on September 18 on a mixed basis: 225 members were elected by party lists while 225 were elected in one-seat constituencies.
United Russia gets 343 seats
According to the report from CEC, the United Russia party received 343 mandates in the State Duma of the 7th convocation and got a constitutional majority of seats.
More specifically, it received 140 seats on the nationwide party ticket and 203 seats in single-mandate constituencies.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation got 42 seats, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, 39 seats, and A Just Russia party, 23 seats.
Voters turnout about 48%
Registered voters turnout in the election of the State Duma deputies was 47.8%, according to the CEC.
The commission also announced that the electoral funds of political parties had received more than 5 billion rubles (some $78.1 million). Of that amount, the parties spent more than 4.5 billion rubles ($70.3 million).
Electoral funds of the candidates who ran in single-mandate constituencies accumulated 3.4 billion rubles ($53.1 million). Of that amount, the candidates spent 3.0 billion rubles ($46.9 million).
Ten people with expired criminal records
Nikolai Bulayev, a CEC deputy chief, said at a meeting of the commission members a total of ten persons with expired criminal records are on the lists of deputies of the four political parties that got seats in the State Duma.
"On the whole, there were 55 people with past criminal records on the federal party tickets on the day of voting because the law made it possible for them to run for parliamentary seats but the parties that got over the (5%) qualification barrier now have ten deputies with such records," Bulayev said with reference to the screening of mandates for past court sentences.
In the course of the screening, the CEC and the Interior Ministry exposed 151 candidates "with criminal components in their biographies."
"Thanks to the prompt reaction of the parties, sixty persons who had concealed their criminal records were dropped off the party tickets," Bulayev said.