Russian poll authority confirms Putin's landslide victory in presidential election

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin won 76.69 percent of the votes in the presidential election on March 18 after all the ballots were counted, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said Friday.

CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova said in a live broadcast that Putin's closest rival, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, got 11.77 percent of the votes, while the head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, received 5.65 percent votes. Five other candidates garnered substantially fewer votes.

Pamfilova said 73.6 million people, or 67.5 percent of all eligible voters, cast their ballot, meaning more than 56 million Russians support Putin.

"The election was free and people were able to exercise their voting rights freely," she said.

On March 19, Pamfilova said 99.83 percent of the votes had been counted as of 9 am Moscow time (0600 GMT) and preliminary data showed Putin had 76.66 percent of them, wining the presidential election.

Putin is expected to be sworn in on May 7 to start his fourth term.