United Russia Claims Landslide in First Wartime Duma Election

United Russia won 57.83% of the vote in Russia's parliamentary election, according to Russia's Central Election Commission.

The three-day vote for the 450-seat State Duma began Friday and ended Sunday. It was Russia's first parliamentary election since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as reported Sept. 21, 2026 Al Jazeera.

The count is nearly complete. With 90.43% of ballots counted on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, Central Election Commission data via TASS put Vladimir Putin's United Russia at 57.86% in early returns, later reported at 57.83%. An earlier partial count, with about 58% of precincts reporting, had given the party nearly 58% of the vote for the 225 deputies apportioned by party lists Associated Press.

Turnout stood just below 57% as of Sunday night, according to the Commission. More than 3.6 million people voted online, according to Russia's Ministry of Digital Development cited by TASS.

The Duma uses a mixed system. Voters elect 225 deputies from party lists and 225 from single-seat races. That dual structure means the list vote share does not by itself determine the final seat distribution.

TASS early figures placed four other parties above the threshold for list representation. The Communist Party stood at 13.84%, LDPR at 8.9%, New People at 7.94%, and A Just Russia at 4.95%.

The 2021 comparison is stark. United Russia then took 49.8% of the vote Yahoo News. It held 326 of 450 seats, an absolute majority. The Communist Party was second-largest with 57 seats.

The 2026 electorate included residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia, and Crimea.

The broader context here is institutional continuity through a wartime electoral cycle. A list-vote increase from 49.8% to 57.83% alters the starting arithmetic for coalition management inside the chamber, particularly when combined with the 225 single-mandate contests that historically reward the dominant party organization. For specialists, the variables to watch are how the list result converts into mandates, whether the four parliamentary parties retain their prior hierarchy, and how turnout below 57% and online voting above 3.6 million are reflected in the Commission's final protocols. The inclusion of voters in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Crimea also affects the administrative map of the election, a factor that will shape how outside governments and international institutions assess the returns.