| Elections for the 450 seats in the State Duma were held on December 4, 2011
The nearly complete results showed that United Russia won a majority of the seats, but many fewer than it had in the 2007 elections. United Russia, a political vehicle for Putin, received 49.5% of the vote to win 238 seats. The Communist Party increased its vote total dramatically and received 19.2% of the vote, winning 92 seats. The only other parties to get enough votes to elect legislators were A Just Russia and the Liberal Democrats.
United Russia lost is ability to change the constitution when it lost its two-thirds majority in the Duma, but its majority means that Putin's agenda will be enacted.
|
Party
|
Popular vote
|
% of total vote
|
Seats won
|
|
|
United Russia
|
33,331,244
|
49.3%
|
238
|
|
|
Communist Party
|
12,594,232
|
19.2%
|
92
|
|
|
A Just Russia
|
8,689,147
|
13.3%
|
64
|
|
|
Liberal Democratic Party
|
7,659,657
|
11.7%
|
56
|
|
|
Yabloko
|
2,249,990
|
3.4%
|
0
|
|
|
Patriots of Russia
|
638,735
|
1.0%
|
0
|
|
|
Right Cause
|
392,507
|
.6%
|
0
|
|
| Source Wikipedia, "Russian Legislative Election, 2011," accessed 10 December 2011 |
Many Russians and foreign observers reported irregularities and judged the elections to be fraudulent. Those reports and (according to many journalists) the cavalier way that Putin and Medvedev announced that they would be trading jobs after the 2012 presidential elections elicited active protests and counter demostrations.
Beginning December 6, thousands of people protested in Moscow. Smaller demonstrations were reported in other cities. Pro-government demonstrations by members of Nashi and the Young Guard began on December 7, and were usually larger than the protests. Large numbers of soldiers and police discouraged demonstrators in major cities.
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