Putin wins majority in election

By Michael Stott

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin won a big endorsement in a parliamentary election on Sunday but the United States urged Moscow to investigate opposition charges of widespread fraud.

First official results showed Putin's United Russia with over 60 percent of the vote -- an outcome likely to be seen by the Kremlin as a strong mandate for Putin to maintain a position of influence after his final presidential term ends next year.

"The overwhelming majority of Russian voters spoke in favor of United Russia, thus supporting President Putin's course, and spoke in favor of it being continued after the current president's second term ends," a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Reuters after early results came in.

Election monitors reported widespread cases of ballot fraud, and the Communist Party, which is likely to be the biggest opposition force in the next parliament, said it would contest the election in the courts.

White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe referred to the allegations of violations and said: "We urge Russian authorities to investigate these claims."

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said his lawyers would need a week to prepare their legal challenge. "These results are not fair. We intend to challenge them in the Supreme Court," he said.

Boris Nemtsov, whose small Union of Right-wing Forces opposition party fell short of the 7-percent hurdle needed to qualify for seats in parliament, was more outspoken.

"I have been in politics for 20 years and these are the most dishonest elections in the history of modern Russia. Putin won with the help of cynicism (and) lies," he said.

But head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, a former colleague of Putin who was appointed election chief this year, dismissed the opposition allegations.

"I think there were no serious violations on polling day. At least during the voting not one party leader called me and no-one complained (to me)," Churov said.

With 30.4 percent of votes counted, United Russia had 63.3 percent of the vote, with nearest rivals the Communists on 11.3 percent, Churov told reporters.

Two other parties -- both of which have a record of backing the Kremlin -- will make it into parliament, he said.

An exit poll from state-owned pollster VTSIOM gave a similar picture, with Putin's party on 61 percent and the same four parties in parliament.

A "NATIONAL LEADER"

According to VTSIOM's calculations, that vote would give pro-Kremlin parties 348 seats in parliament -- far more than the 301 needed to change the constitution. This was something analysts say was a key Kremlin target in the election.