The party of Russian President Vladimir Putin and its allies have won a clear majority in Russia's lower house of parliament. The leading opposition Communist Party suffered significant losses in Sunday's elections and accuses the Kremlin of vote-rigging. With more than 98% of the votes counted, the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party is leading the poll with 37.1%. The Communists took second place with 12.7%, followed by the ultra-nationalist party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky at 11.6%, according to preliminary results. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said that Sunday's poll was "overwhelmingly distorted" by pro-government bias.