The pro-Kremlin United Russia party looked firmly in control as results came in yesterday from regional elections that were marked by violent incidents and the absence of a serious opposition challenge.
United Russia had secured commanding leads in 13 out of 14 races, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported, citing provisional results from regional election officials.
The polls, in which 31 million people, or about a third of the electorate, were eligible to vote, were seen as setting the stage for nationwide legislative elections to the Duma lower house of parliament in December.
The December polls will in turn form the backdrop to a presidential vote to confirm a successor to President Vladimir Putin next March.
"The main result" of Sunday's vote "is that United Russia has remained the leading party ... It had no rivals in the majority of regions," Valery Fyodorov, the general director of polling agency VTsIOM, told the Interfax news agency.
The recently created pro-Kremlin party A Just Russia, headed by the speaker of the upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov, was expected to win the remaining region, Stavropol, in southern Russia, provisional results showed.
One liberal opposition party, the Union of Right Forces, appeared close to crossing the 7 percent threshold needed to qualify for seats -- a controversial requirement resulting from recent legislation.
The other main liberal party, Yabloko, looked set to fail in all 14 regions.
For commentators the main intrigue was the acrimonious battle between the two pro-Kremlin parties, as well as numerous allegations of violations.
Mironov immediately alleged that votes had been unfairly stolen from his party.
In regions "where we have a very good position and expected a reasonable result there were the most violations by our opponents," Mironov said.
Newspapers reported a shooting -- apparently related to the elections -- in which one person was injured in the unstable Dagestan Province, while one election candidate was seriously injured in a stabbing in St Petersburg.
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