Russian electoral authority officially declares Putin winner in presidential poll

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – The Russian electoral authority on Thursday officially approved the 2024 presidential election results, declaring incumbent President Vladimir Putin the winner, with 76.3 million people demonstrating their trust in his leadership.

Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC), said at a news conference in Moscow that over 87.5 million people voted during the three-day voting period from March 15 to 17.

"The final turnout in the Russian Federation's presidential elections was 77.49%. In total, 87,576,075 voters took part in the elections,” she said, adding that there has never been such a figure in modern Russian history.

After counting all of the ballots, Russian President Vladimir Putin received 87.28% or nearly 76.3 million votes, Pamfilova said.

The Communist Party nominee Nikolay Kharitonov came in second with 4.31% of the vote, or more than 3.7 million people voting for him.

Vladislav Davankov, the New People political party's candidate, received 3.3 million votes, accounting for 3.85% of all votes cast.

The Liberal Democrat Party of Russia leader Leonid Slutsky gained 3.2% of the vote, or almost 2.8 million people cast their ballots for him.

According to Pamfilova, the election campaign was held "with high quality, with a clean count of votes."

- Putin comes 1st in US, other 'unfriendly' states to Russia

The electoral authority head thanked the Foreign Ministry for its assistance in organizing the election abroad, saying the diplomatic service did everything possible to ensure Russian citizens' right to vote in other countries.

Pamfilova said 388,791 people voted in 144 foreign countries at 295 polling stations during the 2024 Russian presidential election.

The official noted that Putin came out first even in countries considered as "the most unfriendly" to Russia.

"In Germany, if we take all the polling stations as a whole, 56.82% voted for Putin, in Estonia - 75.22%, in Latvia - 70.6%, in Australia - 53.6%, in Armenia - 54.7%, in the USA - 42.23%, in Washington ... 63.33%," she said.

- Election commission’s employee killed in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region

Over 1 million people participated in organizing the vote, and only nine were suspended from their duties by court order for various reasons, Pamfilova said.

During the election process, two local election commission employees died, including a woman killed in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region when her car was allegedly blown up by "Ukrainian saboteurs" and another man who died of a heart attack, the official said.

She said the election authority received 14,389 complaints about potential violations during the vote, with more than half of them being "falsified from abroad" in order to disrupt the election and overload the system so that it could not function properly.

"The next element of 'terror' is telephone terrorism. It was just on an unprecedented scale. ... We were ready for this. The entire Russian electoral system was mobilized to the maximum extent possible," she said.

Three dozen voting boxes were sprayed with green paint, and there were also reports of polling stations being set on fire, she noted.

The biggest number of invalid ballots came from Poland and countries where Russian citizens had relocated after the beginning of the “special military operation in Ukraine,” she said.

The Central Election Commission unanimously approved the vote results, declared them valid, and officially announced Vladimir Putin as the winner.

According to Russian legislation, the inauguration of the head of state should take place on May 7. Putin will remain in office until May 2030.