Putin party wins the majority in Russian parliament

MOSCOW - Agence France- Presse

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, with the emblem of the United Russia party in the background, visits the United Russia party headquarters in Moscow, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2011. AP Photo

The ruling United Russia party is to win more seats in the new Russian parliament than all other parties put together but its majority is to be cut compared to the last polls, the central election commission said Monday.

United Russia should obtain 238 seats in the 450 seat State Duma, down sharply from the 315 seats it won in the last elections in 2007, election commission chief Vladimir Churov told reporters in a projection based on a 96 percent vote count.

Its biggest opposition would be the Communist Party with 92 seats, followed by the A Just Russia party with 64 seats and the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party with 56 mandates, he added after Sunday's polls.

The results mean that while United Russia has narrowly held onto an absolute majority in the State Duma it has lost the so-called constitutional majority of two-thirds required to pass any changes to the constitution.