Putin party leads

The political party supporting President Vladimir Putin surged into the lead in Russia's parliamentary election yesterday with first results indicating a huge slide in support for the once powerful communists.

The Communist Party's leader denounced the polls as a farce riddled with cheating after an exit poll and the first official results from Russia's far east showed the pro-Kremlin United Russia winning easily twice as many votes as the communists.

The fourth election since the Soviet Union collapsed looks set to hand the highly popular Mr Putin greater powers to drive economic reform, crack down on corruption, boost his bureaucracy and rein in the business elite in a country craving stability.

But critics say a pro-Putin majority in the State Duma lower house will help Kremlin ex-KGB hardliners who want to revive authoritarian rule. Opposition parties accuse them of using state resources and media controls to promote United Russia.

"It looks like we are in for a dose of concentrated Putinism for the next four years," said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital.

First results released by the electoral commission said United Russia had scored 36.5 per cent, slightly more than the 34 per cent predicted by an exit poll.

The results put the communists, who form the main opposition to Mr Putin, on only 13 per cent - way down from the 24 per cent they garnered in the 1999 election.

"This is a shameful farce which has nothing in common with the country's interests," Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov told a news conference. "You are all participants here in a revolting spectacle which for some reason is called an election."

Ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) had 15.6 per cent, reflecting its usual strong showing in the far east. That was likely to drop later as results from western areas were declared.

Motherland (Rodina), a new party combining left-wing economics with nationalism, made a surprise showing well over the five per cent barrier required to win parliamentary seats. Both LDPR and Motherland are expected to back the Kremlin, possibly giving it the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution if it wanted to allow Mr Putin a third term as president.

Yesterday's results suggest Putin, a 51-year-old former KGB officer, is certain to win a second four-year term of office at presidential polls in March.