Putin officially wins Russian presidential election: CEC

MOSCOW - Incumbent President Vladimir Putin has won the 2024 Russian presidential election, according to official results announced by the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) on Thursday.

The final results announced by the CEC during a press briefing showed that Putin secured 87.28 of the votes in the election.

According to recent data, 76,277,708 people voted for Putin. Overall, 3,768,470 people voted for the Community Party's Nikolai Kharitonov, who came second with 4.31 percent. The New People Party's Vladislav Davankov received 3,362,484 votes or 3.85 percent, and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, received 2,797,629 votes or 3.2 percent.

Ella Pamifilova, head of the CEC, said the recent election had the highest voter turnout in the country's modern history. She added that around 87.6 million people cast their votes, and the final voter turnout reached 77.49 percent, according to the CEC.

The president is expected to be sworn in on May 7.