Putin set to win election after 70 pct of ballots counted

MOSCOW - Incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to win Sunday's presidential election as he got 75.91 percent of the vote after 70 percent of the ballots were counted, preliminary data from the Central Election Commission (CEC) showed.

So far, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin got 13.39 percent of the vote, while head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky received 6.34 percent, the CEC data showed.

In a short speech to thousands of supporters near Red Square late Sunday, Putin thanked people who voted for him, saying that his election result was "very decent."

As of 1500 GMT the voter turnout stood at 59.93 percent, slightly up from 58.3 percent in 2012, according to the CEC.

Valentina Matvienko, Russian parliament's upper house speaker, said it was "unprecedented" in terms of both the voter turnout and support for Putin during all his tenures.