Your choice: how was EDG-2026 and who tried to prevent the voting?

A single voting day, 2026, has ended in Russia. Following the results of the voting on September 18-20, 450 parliamentarians, as well as new governors and regional deputies, will be determined. The preliminary results indicate the confident leadership of "United Russia" on the party lists. It is followed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party, "New People" and the CP, according to the data of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation as of the end of the day on September 20. At the same time, unprecedented cyber attacks from abroad and drone raids actively tried to prevent the vote. For security reasons, the legislature was elected ahead of schedule in the new regions. About how the EDG-2026 was held and what its preliminary results may indicate is in the "Izvestia" material.

Results of the State Duma elections

The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation is summing up the final results of the three-day voting in the State Duma elections. The sites in the Kaliningrad region were the last to close at 21:00 Moscow time. According to the party lists, 225 deputies will be elected to the lower house of parliament. According to the data of processing over 26% of the protocols of precinct election commissions, "United Russia" is in the first place, gaining more than 57%. The "Communist" Party (13.9%), the Liberal Democratic Party (9.3%), the "New People" (7.9%) and the "Fair Russia" (5.1%) are behind it. The remaining five parties are currently not overcoming the five percent barrier and are losing their chance to join the renewed State Duma.

These preliminary results also include the results of remote electronic voting (DEG). At the same time, after 21:00, the CEC of the Russian Federation presented separate statistics on the preliminary results of the online elections. They do not include Moscow, which has its own system, and — due to the time difference - the Kaliningrad region. In the statistics of online voting, "New People" (15.4%) are in second place after the EP (49%). This is followed by the Communist Party (12.2%), the Liberal Democratic Party (10.7%) and the CP (5.7%). Voting in single-member constituencies has traditionally played a crucial role in the final balance of power. They will also send 225 people to the State Duma.

At the time of the closure of all polling stations in the Russian Federation, the turnout in the elections of federal deputies was 56.66%, the CEC said. This figure has already exceeded the figures of the campaigns in 2021, 2016, 2003 and 1993. At the same time, the final turnout on the DEG platform was more than 90%. The final election results will be announced no earlier than September 25.

In addition to parliamentary elections, Russians elected regional deputies and representatives of municipal authorities in 39 regions, as well as the heads of eight regions through direct voting. Leaders are already emerging in a number of regions, although there are no surprises here. For example, in the Republic of Tyva, Vladislav Khovalyg is in the lead with 93% after processing almost 70% of the protocols. In the Bryansk region, after analyzing 24% of the protocols, Acting Governor Egor Kovalchuk took the first place (71.4%).

How Donbass and Novorossiya voted

For the first time in history, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions participated in parliamentary elections as full subjects of the federation. According to Nikolai Bulaev, deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission, these regions are already fully integrated into the country's general electoral system. The technologies used there are the same as in the whole country: for example, automation systems (KSA) are a kind of digital shield of the state system "Elections". They encrypt and instantly transfer data from polling stations directly to the Central Election Commission, completely eliminating any attempts at interference.

Ella Pamfilova reported that in four new regions and eight more bordering the special military operation zone, more than 4.2 million people voted early. For security reasons, the process was broken down by time and place to avoid crowding.

So, in the DPR, due to the difficult operational situation, early elections began on August 30. On September 17, the chairman of the republic's election commission, Vysotsky, announced that about 75% of the region's voters had cast their ballots. Polling stations in the republic closed at 2 p.m. on September 20. In the LPR, according to Marianna Sumskaya, chairman of the republican election commission, the enemy tried to destabilize the situation, and the authorities had to switch 14 polling stations to backup power supply.

In the Kherson region, two people were killed, including a member of the regional precinct election commission, as a result of an attack by an APU drone on a civilian bus. In the Zaporizhia region, the chairman of the precinct election commission, Elena Astanina, was killed as a result of a drone attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on her posthumous award of the Order of Courage.

In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed a polling station located in a secondary school in the village of Prishib, Mikhailovsky municipal district. 170 children study there, but there were no casualties, as the site was no longer working at the time of the attack, and there were no people in or near the building.

Election provocations and hacker attacks

During the voting days, more than 1,000 waves of DDoS attacks were carried out on the electoral infrastructure, while over 120 were carried out on remote electronic voting (DEG), said Ella Pamfilova, head of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. The vast majority of them came from the UK, Ukraine, Brazil and Mexico. Compared to the presidential campaign, the number of hacker attacks increased by an unprecedented 8,300% to 100 million. For comparison, 1.2 million attacks were recorded in 2024. According to Pamfilova, they had no effect on the course of the campaign, and all were successfully repulsed.

In Moscow, the electronic voter list system responsible for issuing paper ballots was attacked, said Dmitry Reut, deputy chairman of the Moscow City Election Commission. At the same time, the electronic voting terminals (EEG) were operating normally at the metropolitan polling stations at that moment. On September 19, network outages occurred in the Far East due to deliberate damage to a fiber-optic communication line. However, the operational services worked quickly, and the connection was fully restored.

With the increasing complexity of AI and the digital ecosystem of elections as a whole, cybersecurity problems are also increasing, Dmitry Orlov, Director General of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications (APEC), explained to "Izvestia". Nevertheless, the main thing remains the ability of the political system to respond to it, which the 2026 campaign successfully coped with, the expert emphasized.

There were also violations on the ground. On September 19, an attempt to cast ballots was stopped at polling station No. 343 in Mari El, which was confirmed by the head of the republican election commission, Irina Tatarinova. Three members of the commission involved in the violation were immediately suspended from work, and the illegal ballots were annulled. "This is a blatant case of arrogance, irresponsibility, and stupidity," Ella Pamfilova commented on the violation.

The head of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation also commented on the information about the discovery of about 50 pre-filled ballots with a mark for one of the political parties at polling station No. 62 in Komi: "This is unacceptable. We must carefully check whether these are deliberate actions or a definite provocation." The documents have now been seized, and an investigation is underway into the violation."

In addition to cyber attacks, threats were also recorded against members of election commissions, their families, and even children. Pamfilova promised that those who did this will face "inevitable punishment."