• Russia to the local vote. Low turnout in Moscow, controversy over missed exit polls
  • Russia, Navalny dissident released after 30 days in prison

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09 September 2019 At the Moscow municipal elections the party of President Vladimir Putin, United Russia, lost about a third of its seats. This was confirmed by Ria Novosti with an almost completed count, according to which the party still retains a majority in the city parliament, with 26 out of 45 deputies. municipalities that were held yesterday in Russia.

The vote in the Russian capital comes after weeks of vehement street protests after dozens of opposition candidates were excluded from the vote, protests that led to hundreds of arrests. The dissident groups around Alexej Navalny had appealed for an "intelligent election" in which citizens were asked to vote all but the party's candidates near the Kremlin. In fact, three candidates from the Jabloko opposition center party succeeded in establishing themselves. These included Sergei Mitrokhin, who had managed to "tear up" his candidacy in court. The other deputies arrive from the Communist Party and other formations closer to the Kremlin. In the election of governors, the candidates belonging to the national government apparatus are able to succeed in all respects. The polls had predicted significant declines in consensus for United Russia, which for example in Khabarovsk, the capital of the far eastern Russian federal district, obtained only 12.51% of the votes, placing second after the ultra-national Liberal Democrat party and after the communists. Overall, 56 million voters were called to the polls, almost half of those eligible in all of Russia, but the turnout remained very low: in Moscow it was 21.63%.