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Russia holds regional elections Kremlin parties lead Russian poll
(about 7 hours later)
Russians have voted in regional elections that are widely considered a rehearsal for forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.Russians have voted in regional elections that are widely considered a rehearsal for forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
Exit polls suggested that United Russia, backed by President Putin, was leading in 10 of the 14 regions.
The new Kremlin-supported Just Russia party appeared to have a strong showing in one region, taking half the votes.
Opposition parties said they had been sidelined and dubbed the polls an illegitimate sham.
Control
"We do not recognised as legitimate either these elections not the parliament elected today," said Maxim Reznik, the chairman of the Yabloko party, blocked from fielding candidates in the St Petersburg region.
The ballots are the first in a year of elections that critics say are organised to ensure that President Vladimir Putin retains control.The ballots are the first in a year of elections that critics say are organised to ensure that President Vladimir Putin retains control.
Mr Putin is expected to step down in 2008 but he has hinted he will choose the person who will replace him.Mr Putin is expected to step down in 2008 but he has hinted he will choose the person who will replace him.
Parties opposed to the Kremlin say they have been deliberately marginalised. Some 31 million voters, about a third of the country's electorate, had a choice of two mainstream parties and a number of smaller ones in the elections in 14 of the country's 86 regions.
Voters had a choice of two mainstream parties and a number of smaller ones in the elections in 14 of the country's 86 regions. "The main result of the elections is that United Russia has remained the leading party of Russia. It had no rivals in the majority of regions," Valery Fyodorov of the Kremlin-linked polling centre said.
But analysts say the Kremlin-backed United Russia party will almost certainly win. But Just Russia, a party which supports Putin but presents itself as an alternative to United Russia, gained some 40% of votes in the Stavropol region.
St Petersburg is one of the regions which voted. A large opposition rally in the city to protest that many parties were blocked from the ballot was violently broken up by police this week.
One of Russia's leading liberal political parties, Yabloko, was among the parties banned from the elections there.
The city's electoral commission said too many signatures supporting the party's candidates had been invalid.
But Yabloko said the commission's decision was an attempt to muzzle the voice of the opposition to the pro-Kremlin municipal council.