Russians went to the polls on Sunday to vote for their favorite parties to form a new State Duma, or the lower house of parliament.
Russia's parliament, a bicameral Federal Assembly, has a 450-member lower house and an upper house, the Federation Council, which has 178 seats.
The Duma serves four-year terms and it adopts laws by a simple majority of all its members, or 226 votes.
Draft laws then go to the Federation Council for approval by a simple majority and must be signed by the president in order to come into effect.
The lower house also has the power of reviewing the appointment of prime minister by the president.
Eleven political parties, including the pro-Kremlin party United Russia and the main opposition force The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, are competing in Sunday's elections with new election rules.
According to the original rules when the Duma was elected in 2003, half of lower house's 450 seats were shared out on a proportional basis by parties that win at least 5 percent of the popular vote, the other half were determined by a single-constituency majority vote.
Under the new electoral system, the threshold for parties to have seats in the Duma is lifted from 5 percent to 7 percent. Meanwhile, the constituencies have now been scrapped and lawmakers can only win election based on nationwide support for their party list.
The new rules also forbid parties from forming blocs to contest the election.
Source: Xinhua
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