Penza, 14 August 2016. PenzaNews. Almost one-third of the residents of the Penza region would vote for United Russia, if elections to the State Duma of the seventh convocation were held on Sunday, August 14. These are the results of a survey conducted by PenzaNews agency on the website in the period from July 29 to August 13, 2016, with 619 respondents, including 543 from the Penza region.

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Since the previous internet research carried out on PenzaNews website in the second half of April, the party in power was able to significantly strengthen its position. Then, United Russia gathered votes of only 24.89% of respondents, while the Communist Party was able to get the support of 33.33%. To date, the Communists lost almost 3%, their result is 30.53%.

In the process, part of the votes for both United Russia the Communist Party was not taken into account, since PenzaNews technicians reported on several attempts to influence the results of the poll on August 9.

7.43% of the respondents are ready to give their votes for any non-parliamentary parties (in April — 7.14%), LDPR — 6.31% (7.36%), “A Just Russia” which is an outsider like in spring 2016 gathered 3.88% (4.55%).

The non-existent candidate square “Non” canceled in the elections at all levels in 2006, but returned in 2014 only to municipalities, received 19.06% votes. In April, this index was 3.67% higher — 22.73%.

According to some experts, this is quite a high percentage — almost a fifth of all voters, among whom are certainly those who are still unsure about their choice. As a result, the political struggle in the next four weeks may turn around this segment.

Elections of deputies of the State Duma of the seventh convocation are scheduled for the unified election day September 18, according to a mixed electoral system: 225 deputies of 450 are elected from party lists under a single federal district (proportional system) and another 225 — in single-member constituencies (majority system).

To get into the State Duma, parties are to break the 5-percent barrier, and the candidates in the districts — to receive a relative majority of votes.

First mixed system for the formation of the legislative power in Russia was applied at the elections in 1993, 1995, 1999 and 2003. Since 2007, people vote only for party lists in the Duma elections.

The study was conducted at the initiative and expense of PenzaNews by survey among the Internet users of the website from July 29 to August 13, 2016.

619 respondents participated, 543 of them reside in the Penza region, which is the main survey region.

The question asked sounded as follows: “If the Russian State Duma elections were held on the second Sunday of August, which party would you vote for?”

The margin of error — 4%.

The results are published on the website of PenzaNews agency at no charge in order to inform citizens.