United Russia bolstered its command over the national polity, securing victories in regional parliamentary elections over the weekend despite increasing economic turbulence.

Rival parties, meanwhile, complained of widespread violations in the more than 3,000 regional and municipal elections held in 79 regions Sunday, while the new Kremlin-backed, pro-business party Right Cause notched a surprising success in Tolyatti.

Preliminary results Monday showed United Russia, which is led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, holding commanding leads in all nine regional parliamentary elections.

Turnout was 55.7 percent in the nine regions holding parliamentary elections, Central Elections Commission chief Vladimir Churov told reporters Monday. National turnout for the 2007 State Duma elections, in which United Russia captured a constitutional majority, was 59 percent.

Sunday's elections of city councils, mayors and regional parliaments were the first since the global financial crisis hit Russia late last year and saw an unusually low voter turnout in the Far East.

Turnout in the Far East did not exceed 30 percent, Churov said, adding that election officials' work there would be subject to a "strict inspection," Itar-Tass reported.

Comparably low turnouts were also recorded in other regions, including Vladimir, where some 30 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.

The highest turnout was registered in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, where 84 percent of registered voters went to the polls. Election monitors have pointed to unbelievably high turnouts in North Caucasus republics as evidence of election-rigging, though officials attribute voter exuberance to local traditions.

Support for United Russia ranged from about 42 percent in the Nenets autonomous district to almost 80 percent in Tatarstan, whose president, Mintimer Shaimiyev, is a senior United Russia leader.

In Tolyatti, home to AvtoVAZ, the country's largest carmaker, United Russia captured 39 percent in the regional parliamentary election, while Right Cause, registered only last month, garnered a surprising 26 percent.

Right Cause is a Kremlin-backed project that many see as an attempt to round out the political landscape with a liberal, pro-business party that will pull punches when criticizing the government.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov and Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky both complained of widespread violations. Zhirinovsky said he would call for senior election officials to be fired.

Zyuganov, meanwhile, said his party had nonetheless managed to increase the number of its votes in "most of the regions," Interfax reported.

It was not a clean sweep for United Russia in mayoral elections, as United Russia candidate Yelena Bystritskaya was knocked out of the race with just 11 percent of the vote in the Primorye region town of Partizansk. Two independent candidates will compete in the runoff.

Second rounds will also be held in the mayoral elections in Tomsk, Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, where the United Russia candidates failed to win with an outright majority Sunday.

Mayors are the last directly elected officials in Russia.

Khimki Mayor Vladimir Strelnikov was re-elected after a fierce campaign in the suburb north of Moscow. One of Strelnikov's most vocal critics, local newspaper editor Mikhail Beketov, was savagely beaten by unidentified assailants last year and remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Meanwhile, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov's son, Dmitry Gryzlov, failed to get elected to the city council in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported. Gryzlov was running without the backing of United Russia.