Russia hit by protests as Putin's party fails to shine in the elections

摘要

The Ruling United Russia (Yedinaya Ros-siya: ER) party on 4 December 2011 proved unable to repeat its stellar performance in 2007's legislative election. According to Russia's Central Election Committee (CEC), the ER gained only 49.6% of the total votes, or 238 out of 450 mandates in the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. This was a serious drop compared to 64.7% of total vote or 315 seats gained in 2007, when the party enjoyed an absolute or two-thirds majority that allowed it to push through legislation unilaterally. The Communist Party of Russian Federation (Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiskoy Federatsii: KPRF) came second in the race, securing 19.1% of votes or 92 seats, compared to 57 seats in 2007.