MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin’s ruling party suffered a big drop in support in a parliamentary election today, exit polls showed, as voters signalled their growing unease with his domination of Russian politics before a planned return to the presidency next year.
Two exit polls suggested Putin’s party, United Russia, would win 45.5 and or 48.5 percent of the votes in the election to the State Duma compared with 64.3 percent in 2007 and that it could struggle even to hold on to a majority in the chamber.
The vote was widely seen as a test of Putin’s personal authority after signs that Russians have started to tire of his tough-guy image, built up by his crushing of a rebellion in rebel Chechnya and antics such as bare-chested horse riding.
“Russia has a new political reality even if they rewrite everything,” said Sergei Obukhov, a parliamentary deputy of the Communist Party, which made considerable gains, its vote almost doubling to around 20 percent, according to the exit poll.
A United Russia leader, Boris Gryzlov, looked stunned when he addressed reporters after voting ended but claimed victory and said: “We are watching and hope that we shall get a majority of the mandate in the State Duma”.
“We can say that United Russia remains the ruling party.”
But there can be little to cheer Putin, who has dominated Russian politics since becoming president in 2000 and serving in the post until 2008. In that year he was obliged to step down, the constitution preventing him serving more than two consecutive terms.
Official results after about 10 percent of the votes had been counted showed United Russia with 45.9 percent of the vote and the communists with 20.7 percent.
The exit poll did not make clear how the 450 seats in the Duma would be shared out under complicated calculations. But one poll projected United Russia, which has dominated the chamber since 2003, would have only 220 seats.
The communist party emerged in second place in both polls with considerable gains over 2007.
Putin remains by far the most popular politician in the vast country of more than 140 million people but there have been signs that some Russians are wearying of his cultivated strong-man image after 12 years in power.
