Polls close in Russian wartime election with ruling party set to dominate

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast the vote as a test of support for his ongoing Ukraine" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="142386" data-entity-type="event">war in Ukraine.Polls have closed in Russia’s first wartime parliamentary elections, with the ruling Russia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="154443" data-entity-type="organization">United Russia party on course to win the tightly controlled vote.The Kremlin wants the elections, the first parliamentary vote since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to showcase popular support for the war and legitimise its action.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3The view from Russia: ‘No party can be antiwar’ in parliamentary electionlist 2 of 3Do elections in Russia make a difference?list 3 of 3Russia’s elections are more than political theatreend of listRussian government officials accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt voting after Kyiv launched hundreds of drones at Moscow and other regions in what the TASS state news agency said was the biggest attack of its kind since the war began.The drone strikes on Sunday killed at least three people in the Moscow region and two more in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, including an election official, according to the region’s governor and the election commission.Russian authorities also reported attacks on the country’s electronic voting systems and communication lines during the polls, but said the electoral process was mostly smooth.Initial results showed the Russia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="154443" data-entity-type="organization">United Russia party comfortably ahead, and Russia’s Central Election Commission said turnout at the close of polls stood at 56.66 percent.The first official results and turnout are expected on Monday morning.Voting in Russian-held Ukrainian areasThe vote, which began on Friday for 111 million eligible voters, included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began, but still doesn’t fully control, as well as those in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.