Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party is to win more seats in the new Russian parliament than all other parties put together but saw its majority weakened sharply compared to the last elections, the central election commission reported Monday.

Moscow / NationalTurk – United Russia Party and Vladimir Putin 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 informedreporters in a projection based on a 96 % vote count.

Putin’s 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.

Putin : Hardly a victory in The Russia elections

The results indicate 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.

Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov announced after the Russian vote that Putin’s “honeymoon” with the Russian nation had come to an end.

“He needs to hold an honest presidential election and allow opposition candidates to register for the race, if he doesn’t want to be booed from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad,” Nemtsov stated.

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