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Putin's party losing some of its grip

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attend a military parade in Red Square on the Victory Day in Moscow on May 09, 2011. UPI Photo/Stringer.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attend a military parade in Red Square on the Victory Day in Moscow on May 09, 2011. UPI Photo/Stringer. | License Photo

MOSCOW, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Russian voters appeared to loosen Vladimir Putin's grip on power Sunday, denying his party 50 percent of the seats in the lower house of Parliament.

The Voice of America reported exit surveys showed Putin's United Russia Party carrying about 48 percent of the vote, with the Communist Party running second with about 19 percent.

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The results appear to be a startling change from four years ago, when United Russia garnered more than 64 percent of the vote. VOA said Russian analysts had predicted a decline in the party's popularity with a growing gap between rich and more and allegations of corruption.

A leading independent Russian vote monitoring organization, Golos, told VOA Russian police blocked poll watchers from their monitoring posts around the nation, and the organization's Web site and that of the radio station Echo of Moscrow were swamped by denial-of-service attacks.

Golos said United Russia was complicit in most of the 5,300 complaints of voting violations it received, VOA said

Earlier, there were widespread expectations United Party would retain a majority.

In all, 110 million Russians and 2 million expatriates are eligible to vote for 450 representatives in the Duma, or lower parliamentary house, the RIA Novosti news agency said.

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Midday, the Central Election Commission said voter turnout was at 25.4 percent.

"Turnout at the current elections to the State Duma is higher by more than 4 percent than at the legislative elections in 2007," election official Valery Kryukov said.

There are seven registered political parties in Russia. The news agency said pollsters were predicting just four of them – all of which already hold seats – would dominate in the voting. They are Putin's United Russia, A Just Russia, the Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party.

Russia will hold presidential elections in March, and Putin was nominated for the role by his party last month.

"He is widely regarded as almost certain to win regardless of the party's performance in Sunday's Duma vote," RIA Novosti said.

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