Russia declares official results of parliamentary polls

MOSCOW (AA) - President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party won Sunday's parliamentary elections, having garnered 54.2 percent of the votes, the Central Election Commission announced Friday.

The Communist Party came second with 13.3 percent, while the Liberal Democratic Party was third at 13.1, followed by the Fair Russia Party, which got 6.2 percent of the votes.

United Russia - chaired by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev - will have 343 seats in the State Duma, Russia’s 450-seat lower house of parliament.

The Communist Party will be represented by 42 deputies, while the Liberal Democratic Party, and Fair Russia Party will have 39 and 23 seats, respectively.

The Motherland Party and Civic Platform party will have one seat each. There will also be an independent deputy.

A party needs to win 266 seats to command a majority in the Duma.

The turnout for the State Duma elections was announced as 47.9 percent.

Turkish Foreign Ministry said Friday that it does not recognize the results of Russia’s parliamentary elections held in occupied Crimea.

"The results of the elections in Crimea are not legitimate for us," spokesman Tanju Bilgic said in a statement, adding Turkey would continue to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine including Crimea.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 following a contested referendum. Since then, the region’s Tatar community has regularly denounced increasing repression including arbitrary arrests and detentions.