Russia’s ruling United Russia party managed to cling on to its majority in the lower house in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, despite failing to get a majority of votes in an election that was marred by accusations of vote rigging and intimidation by opposition parties.

With 96 per cent of ballots counted on Monday, United Russia, the party of prime minister Vladimir Putin, had 49.54 per cent of the vote, down from 64.3 per cent in 2007, which would give the party 238 seats in the 450-seat parliament, down from 315.