starts on t.v. dot com. the voting in russia's parliamentary election is over the main question is can the united russia take over fifty percent of the vote currently there just falling short we're bringing you special coverage from central moscow here on r.t. . also iran's military forces say they have shot down an unmanned u.s. drone in the east of the country according to a state news agency. and a round up of the week's top headlines the u.n. human rights commission of calls for international intervention in syria but russia and china voted against the resolution saying foreign meddling will only cause more bloodshed.

it's nine pm i should say ten pm here in moscow you're watching r t live from the russian capital with me. so straight to our extensive coverage of russia's parliamentary election here on our team my colleague and he said now is in a special studio in central moscow and the. yes though we have the latest exit polls for you they show that united russia is in fact leading the vote but have less than fifty percent so far let's cross our teeth you've got to be underground show where she's at the central election committee headquarters for us because we know what are the figures looking like now i understand we have some

official preliminary results indeed any so we're receiving the first exit polls results but again it should be mentioned that not all of the voters agreed don so questions leaving the polling stations about thirty percent of people refused to answer those questions so the first exit polls results may not reflect the picture accurately but still here the are the latest figures show that the united russia party is leading with over forty four percent of the vote the communists are in second with just slightly short of twenty one percent of the has a little less than thirty percent and the liberal democrats around twelve percent behind russia oakwood into the polls the other three parties taking part of the vote haven't broken the seven percent threshold so here the first exit polls the voting the votes are still being counted so we'll be bringing you the latest as we get it again russia uses a. proportional representation system in the duma election in all their four

hundred fifty seats at stake and so gets a number of seats proportionate to the number of votes one as its not for parties only have secured a certain number of seats in the newly elected state duma. previously deputies were elected for four years it is the first time that the lower house of the russian parliament the state duma will be elected for a five year term we bring you the latest will see how the parties have fared and thus for now back to you anderson. that's why we continue to cross live to you getting a great show at the central election committee headquarters here in moscow of course it's not yet clear exactly how the newly elected duma will look with votes still being counted in official results still coming in but to give you an idea of how the lower house of the russian parliament actually works tests are cilia has this guide.

this right here is the state duma the lower chamber of the russian parliament where laws are adopted and all bills are first reviewed and the term comes from the russian dumont meaning to think it was founded in one thousand nine hundred six but does survive the one nine hundred seventeen revolution however it did bounce back in one thousand nine hundred three when a new constitution was introduced and the upcoming election and the makeup of the six do my since one thousand nine hundred three. or four hundred fifty seats up for grabs in the duma and the elected deputies will serve for five years well as it stands the state do must be divided between four political parties. currently has three hundred fifteen seats it's the biggest party in the duma it's followed by the communists with fifty seven seats of the liberal democrats forty seats and a fair russia has thirty eight. look

at those parties in detail now the ruling united russia party has a constitutional majority in the current parliament and is led by prime minister vladimir putin and with the upcoming election of president dmitry medvedev will be at the top of the party's list of candidates for the party's representation in the duma is not only made up of career politicians but celebrities as well such as one of the most decorated gymnasts of two time olympic medalist. former n.h.l. star. as well as the first man to walk in space alexei now the party's platform essentially revolves around modernizing the economy uprooting corruption and add to radicalism however united russia is also often criticized as bureaucratic inefficient and to some extent blamed for political and economic stagnation. of the second in the number of seats is the communist party headed by its own shall and. you got the communists are the biggest opposition force in the country

constantly in second place and one of the most prominent deputies in this sector. is a nobel laureate in physics in two thousand and the communist party promises a not for the first nationalization of key industries they're often criticized for sticking to a platform that caters to an elderly constituency but still dreams of returning to the glory days of the soviet union. or another old timer of the russian the state duma. he's a leader of the liberal democratic party of russia now it's often called a one a man party is widely considered to be a show matt has over as eccentric behavior and sometimes shocking political views for example he advocated forcibly retaking alaska from the u.s. and openly expressed his hatred of certain ethnic groups from that is it is often his words into action while on a lighter note since resting chopping i'm excited to read it was elected as a united russia deputy there's been no more poles in the state.

fair russia is headed by he said again and as the name implies its platform is based on the principles of fairness freedom it's only dirty calling for the proper functioning of a well first. this is the usual working place if the deputy no bells and whistles just a mike and a device with which to vote but not all deputies are interested in the daily debates over bills last year a huge scandal emerge when it came to light that some deputies consistently missed sessions and simply asked their party called to vote in their absence now only after public criticism from the president they returned to work despite the shortcomings of russia's politicians there are still hopes of the country will be able to put together the kind of polling that it needs to address its people's demands and navigate russia's future so who exactly will be filling these four hundred fifty seats of the state duma it won't be long now to find.

you're watching r t live from moscow with our special election coverage we continue to update you on the very latest results throughout the night stay with us let's check in with daniel bush he's at united russia party headquarters joins us live now daniel according to official preliminary results the party is topping its rivals but not quite taking half of the vote just under fifty percent what the atmosphere like among the party members where you are. you know it's across the chairman has just given the first official reaction to the party's victory he says it's still a victory despite the losses compared to four years ago which he puts down to have become painting but opposition parties but you know to all the governments in europe are being forced out because of the effects of the euro crisis at the moment the economic crisis there's really three thing the world at the moment. is the party leader if the president of russia is top the paul t. list and we can now hear a clip explaining the policies agenda as well as some of the criticism that has

been thrown at the policy. which. as russians pick for parliament who are the main contenders in the race for a do list seats. swap seats with dmitri medvedev in two thousand and eight may do so again in twenty twelve after midday do you propose putin for the presidency campaign. future of the us priorities modernization tightening inequality fighting corruption maximizing russia's impact international affairs criticized as a monolith that's too slow to react to social change. the world for being home to the tons of logic and dmitri medvedev wanted russia election two thousand eleven party. you know it's russia's chairman here i did the party will continue to create

a strong great role show which is based on the rule of law officials at the headquarters who are talking about the stability that the paul de hugs brought to the country in recent years and they explain really that's a key reason why voters have chosen to go with the poll to begin this year. with daniel bushell reporting live from united russia headquarters let's now cross over to the liberal democrats headquarters artie's peter all over is there for us monitoring the situation peter tell us what has been the reaction so far the latest results suggest that they are third this time around how are they reacting to that news of these preliminary results. well going in to tonight the liberal democrats held forty seats in the state duma and i was talking to representatives from the party they were quietly confident that they would gain on those forty representatives those forty duma deputies and we're hoping that they could see those gains coming through from the areas where they well that where they pick

their base from the base for the liberal democratic voters usually in the regions of russia they usually target. single men low income men in these villages outlying in outlying parts of the country now they were looking at exit polls from siberia suggesting that the lib dems could have taken as much as twenty percent of the vote from those parts of the country now the leader of the party the always colorful and often controversial. was just talking to journalists a few moments ago he suggested that the liberal democratic party could take as much as twenty to thirty percent of the vote however that's not really what we're seeing coming through in the exit poll so far they those exit polls tend to place the lib dems somewhere around the ten to fifteen percent mark depending on which one you're looking at so whether he'll be disappointed come the end of the night we'll just have to wait and see but we can have a look now at what the liberal democrats are all about. as russians pick for

parliament who are the main contenders in the race for. the party's ever present love. by far russia's most boisterous and controversial bully politician current campaign slogan we are for russians priorities food housing transport and science biggest success here in northeast post-surgery russia's first presidential election critics cry over racist remarks personal violence populist slogans. for putting them out britain says poisoned dogs under the tree didn't go on the party list and ensuring his parliamentary protection. the liberal democratic party of russia alexion two thousand to eleven party. he went on to talk further about the today's palm entry vote pulling no punches

he referred to fair russia as the most corrupt party in the country and he also suggested the united russia the leading policy had been shown on television ten times more than the liberal democrats over the last four years so letting the media in some senses for the liberal democrats perhaps coming up short on what they had expected to gain in this election. but i think agree or disagree with him it's fair to say he always makes some point of making a very bright statement we heard that from testable bit earlier peter over live from the liberal democrats headquarters i just want to point out that so far over a hundred people have in fact been arrested in moscow as political organizations both pro-government and opposition tried to stage rallies on election day parties jacob greaves has the latest from central moscow. but as you said actually these opposition protests will be somewhat lost on the ground that's right in nature throughout the course of the day there will be more individuals than say parties or

movements as such no less the left front two are in attendance but just behind me outside of the credible zone miners square a few of the numbers to tell you by police basically using this tactic whereby following these protesters tools the nearest metro station is something they employed as well on their cheap so yes we would loyal to united russia and a few of their members the rest of us they express support for the government this is the scene around the capital some throughout the course of the day such as asking thirty war bands movement churches. with a lot of this is a release of their members to tell you by police as you mentioned the reason the police are using these tactics is because that prison is still the day of silence whereby such opinions can't be voiced in such a public's stage in case they say why people were head of the end of polling. let's check in now on some of the first official results that's with seventy

percent of the votes counted so far they show that united russia is leading with almost forty six percent of the vote the communists come in second place so far with just slightly over twenty percent liberal democrats around fourteen percent according to those results and according to the information the other three parties don't have enough votes to actually make that threshold well to discuss all of this and really now we can speculate because this media blackout is now over joining me is yvonne's us or ski who is a russian journalist thank you for being with us let's speculate according to the latest preliminary results united russia like i said has gained around forty four percent which of course is under the fifty percent first of all do you think they'll make that fifty percent second of all this is a significant drop from the sixty five percent they got in the two thousand and seven elections why is that well i think that it looked as if the victory in the

bag so they couldn't really mobilize enough support. they behaved. as if they had already so i think that's why a lot of people chose to vote for fair or even for liberal democrats because i think a lot of people wanted to punish. the united russia for having power for so long and maybe not doing everything they could but still leading so you think it's the people saying well we put you into power but you need to make some changes and i think i think you know there was a kind of flesh small but people there was a there was actually a flash mob on facebook and other social networks with people supporting the position that you could you should you should go and vote for anybody but not united russia so in a sense by having him in so much pride or by having so much television coverage and by. being on top of the world as the president and prime minister they sort of

united their enemies so their enemies work together against them and i think that this is one of the reasons why we will have a different duma but but my point my point of view is that they will make fifty percent probably but i'm not sure of course ok well you know we of course well we'll see when the official results come in completely only seventeen percent of the votes counted not so long ago president of course is running the party list said the ruling party mustn't be complacent which is really what you said the people are saying and he admits that the party needs reforms what kind of reforms do they need well i think it's not that the reforms in the party are secondary in my view first of all the party has the power so i think what didn't happen and which is what should have happened is that the political campaign for united russia should have been about repressions on corruptions and other charges because they're not running the party they're running the state so people in russia are very

critical of the state and they're very vocal in a sense and social networks have given them even louder voice so but. that if says that indeed he's interested in building a feedback system a sort of feedback loop so that people could have their say but. i think when they're put in has not demonstrated that he's going to listen and this this position having both meant that if and putin and putin invisibly on the list you know sort of misled people. gave some mistrust people didn't believe that the party had enough power to actually implement what it was going to say aside from social politics i mean what people are aware is that united russia will first the best deal for older people by raising pensions and for dependent. people with those on stage jobs will be cracked serious but i think this is this is the world bank the

can always use i think they're going to use it to the fall so this is why i think when we move the statistics will move across the country we'll have more a larger cities with big factories big and more older people and i think this is how they're going to make a person if they're going to make it right. russian journalist thank you very much for your analysis this hour only seventeen percent of the vote counters will continue to see how it all plays out do you say with r t throughout the evening we have special coverage for you from our special studio here in central moscow and we'll be monitoring the situation line for you throughout the night stay with r.t. for election twenty eleven.

now let's turn to some news that shaped the past seven days in our weekly updates on the latest news from around the world but of course us and he has just said we'll continue our special election coverage throughout the evening. iranian forces have shot down an american unmanned drone in the east of the country that's according to iran's state news agency the aircraft used for spying was reportedly dulled with minimum damage and seized by iranian authorities american radio host and independent blogger steven lemmon has told me that he thinks these tactics are nothing new from the u.s. . these drones but you were. doing it in america so you doing it in many other countries. for since i'm eight hundred seventy.

b.c. we want to change the regime to make it so syrians to you which interest. is that is the curry the notion believes it is the right tools all sovereignty to run it all be able to conduct its over thirty years it doesn't have to it's i don't want washington to disagree do you realize the carsley. syria has reportedly accepted the arab league's plan to send a mission of foreign observers into the country this comes in the wake of sustained foreign pressure on damascus the un's high commissioner for human rights calling for international intervention she said four thousand people have been killed since the clashes began almost nine months ago a series ambassador to the u.n. responded by warning that the solution to the crisis can't come from abroad a resolution that could have paved the way for military intervention in syria was blocked by russia and china they believe the u.n. continues to ignore reports of atrocities committed by opposition fighters and think that foreign meddling would only make the situation worse political analysts

talk to questions just who the sanctions that have been imposed are aimed at. these sanctions are meaningless actually i think they're meaningless and on every level on the level on the economic level and on the security lap and it will not stop the violence western powers particularly the united states now to use these sanctions and other to use the decisions of the arab league for their own purposes to put pressure on syria to put pressure not for the syrian regime to stop the killing as they put it but you know what they want is to weaken the syrian regime and to weaken the alliance between syria iran and lebanon i don't think they they. as so much for for syrian blood in libya more than one hundred thousand people were killed by nato bombings and the country was devastated and nobody said anyone so i can't actually believe that they're now so what about three thousand syrians when

they are not actually what it about more than one hundred thousand libyans it has nothing to do with stopping violence on the contrary they're feeding the bodies we can't expect the syrian government and the syrian army to end the violence if the other if they armed gangs do not stop atrocities against the syrian armed forces. police in riot gear arrested more than a dozen occupy protesters shutting down their camp in the u.s. city of portland police band overnight stays at parks where tents have been set up but some activists refused to go demonstrations accuse offices of using tough tactics against a peaceful rally pushing people to the ground teenager teenage protester should say claims an officer hit him in the face with a right state police action came as part of a wave to dismantle occupy headquarters across the u.s. in the past few weeks. now reports the movement's message is beginning to resonate even with those whose job it is to controlling.

those streets occupy wall street has become an undeniable american household name. and police crackdowns against the democratic movement have become something of the norm not so normal is seeing one side endorse the other. retired philadelphia police captain ray lewis became the game changer on nov seventeenth arrested while demonstrating the occupy protesters on the streets of new york city the twenty four year veteran was held in police custody for eleven hours and received one comment from a new york cop nobody this one individual said that i had the testicles of an elephant although all of america's police force is part of the ninety nine percent captain lewis says cops secretly supporting ws face dire consequences by going public oh

a tremendous fear of losing their job being disciplined being fired and then what do they do everybody. here and police officers also they cannot risk they have children. what would they do. jobs available in the nighttime raid on zuccotti park and subsequent arrest of dozens of journalists covering the story are among many reasons captain lewis says he temporarily try. planted to manhattan that's close to dictatorship when you exclude the media. that's what dictators around the world and that is very scary brutal scare tactics such as pepper spray the tongs and flash grenades canisters have been used against occupy camps throughout the us oakland california resembles something of an urban war zone this fall leaving a war vet in critical condition and the eyes of an eighty four year old burning from tear gas oakland police officer fred chavez is the only octave cop who's gone

on record with his support but totally agree with occupy wall street even to understand what i am a part of the ninety nine percent but most people are peaceful and i want to see change many believe the biggest change could calm when or if u.s. law enforcement officials stop suppressing the right to assemble and begin supporting it despite his arrest captain lewis is back at zuccotti park showing unwavering support for the occupy movement standing roughly ten or fifteen feet away from him a group of new york city police officers yes there we are securing the area but some are beginning to show a little interest for the first time i had an officer break ranks yesterday. a white officer named officer and introduced himself and if you question i said do you know the risk you're taking and he was so brave they said this is still america and until a supervisor ordered me back to the line i'm going to talk with you i hope to get

mainstream america involved the players involved realizing that world of corporate america and that corporate america has got to be stopped. r.t. new york. twenty seven minutes past the hour here in the russian capital we continue with our coverage of the parliamentary elections here in russia a little later and a re couple of stories coming up in just a few minutes stay with us here. are going.

you're watching r t why from moscow to our special coverage of russia's parliamentary election we can cross to the headquarters of the united russia party

which is leading the vote according to preliminary results i understand that prime minister vladimir putin and president dmitry medvedev have a ride there together and they are speaking. and i should say on the sleeve it has been avoided if a call to the state of since. the army. is much more difficult to win it for the first time especially one would talk about a large number of problems and issues and we have you know a country that's why i think that in this respect everyone has done a lot of work. and the leader of the united states russia which was like if you are thank you thank goodness. and you know if you were to be the results that you can currently but sure you can speak without. some calculation to send somebody to.