Penza, 30 April 2016. PenzaNews. Nearly a quarter of the Penza region constituency intends to vote for United Russia or None of the Above in the State Duma election, while a third of them seek to support the Communist Party, according to the PenzaNews website poll held on 15-29 April 2016, which received votes from 462 users (including 334 from Penza and the region).

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If the election date would fall on the last day of April, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia would have received slightly over 7% of the vote, same as any of other parties in the list that do not have any representation in the state parliament.

In addition, “A Just Russia” party became the underdog of the poll, with only around 4.5% of the vote.

However, those who chose None of the Above in the poll will be forced to pick sides by September 18 if they indeed intend to vote, as the Russian State Duma election legislation forbids including an “against all” option in the list.

Originally, the None of the Above option was canceled for all elections in 2006, at the same time with removal of a minimal vote requirement. However, the “against all” option came back in 2014 for municipal elections.

The election into the Russian Duma of the 7th convocation will be held on the united vote day of September 18.

The election will be conducted in a mixed form: out of the 450 deputies, 225 will be elected through party lists in unified federal districts (under a proportionary system), while 225 more will be elected for single-mandate regions (under a majoritary system).

The political parties that intend to get representation in the State Duma must surpass a 5% threshold, while their candidates in the region must receive a relative majority of the vote.

Previously, the mixed State Duma election system was used in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2003. However, starting from 2007, the voters were asked to vote for party lists only.