By Correspondent
Zimbabwean legislators observed Russia’s parliamentary elections in Moscow as the country voted in its first State Duma election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
President of the Senate Mabel Chinomona led a Zimbabwean parliamentary delegation observing the elections for deputies to the ninth State Duma.
Voting was held from September 18 to 20, with 111 million eligible voters taking part in the three-day poll.
The Zimbabwean delegation’s presence formed part of parliamentary engagement and international election observation.
President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has since won 57.83 percent of the vote and secured 355 of the State Duma’s 450 seats, according to near-complete results released by Russia’s Central Election Commission.
The result strengthened the party’s constitutional majority.
Turnout was reported at about 59 percent, while Russian authorities described the election as orderly despite reported cyberattacks and Ukrainian drone strikes during the voting period.
The election was held in a tightly restricted political environment, with most prominent anti-war candidates excluded from the ballot.
Russia’s Supreme Court had also removed Yabloko, the country’s only registered party openly opposed to the war, from the national party-list contest.
The outcome leaves United Russia with a dominant position in the legislature, while the Communist Party, LDPR, New People and A Just Russia retained parliamentary representation.
For Zimbabwe, the participation of Chinomona and the parliamentary delegation places the country among foreign observers engaging with Russia’s electoral institutions at a politically significant vote.
The election was closely watched because it was the first parliamentary vote since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The vote also included residents of Ukrainian territories that Russia claims to have annexed, a move condemned by Ukraine and other governments as unlawful.
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