Voting ended on late Sunday in Russia, after people around the country cast votes for members of the Russian House of Parliament - the lower house of the state Duma - and several regional and municipal heads.
United Russia claims with 28.75% of the ballots counted at the time of writing, Russia's Central Election Commission said United Russia had so far gained 44.92% RIA Novosti reported.
Early results showed the Communist Party trailing behind with 21.96%.
Opposition members and independent observers have raised concerns over alleged instances of voter fraud. In comments Sunday, election officials said they had annulled some of the votes in question. The head of Russia's Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, pushed back on hype, saying official counted a total of only 12 cases of ballot stuffing across just eight districts in the entire country.
The election has also been dismissed by members of the country's political opposition who allege Russian authorities interfered in their candidacy claims Pamfilova has also criticized, saying the elections represent the entire political and social spectrum. However, a once-significant presence in Russia's political landscape was missing this year. In April, Russia outlawed the political movement of prominent Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny by labeling it extremist, forcing it to shut down and rendering its members ineligible to run in elections. Navalny himself was imprisoned earlier this year after a Moscow court ruled he had violated parole conditions in 2014 case.