Moscow-imposed election commissions in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, in a vote aimed at politically legitimizing the annexation, indicated that the five parties represented in the Russian parliament presented candidates for local assemblies, with Putin’s party ranking prominently in the results. , preliminary.
In Zaporozhye, the Kremlin party received 83.96% of the votes, with about 60% of the ballots carefully examined. In Kherson, United Russia came close to 87% of the vote, and in Donetsk it was in the lead with 79.56%. In Lugansk, the only region in eastern Ukraine that is almost entirely controlled by Russia, United Russia received 74.72% of the vote with almost 54% of the vote counted.
The Central Election Commission assured that the level of participation in the four annexed provinces was higher than in other Russian territories, amounting to more than 74% of registered voters.
The US and Ukraine have warned that the results of this “election” are rigged, and like most Western countries and allies (Canada and Japan), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe have assured that they will not recognize these “illegal” elections.
Local and regional elections ended in Russia at 18:00 (Lisbon time) after three days of voting, but in the annexed regions and where early voting began a week ago, polling stations closed five hours earlier “for security reasons.”