The United Russia party backed by President Vladimir Putin has won 54.2 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election, based on the 93 percent of ballots counted by Monday, data from the election commission showed.The continued dominance of the lower house by United Russia, the party Putin founded and which is now run by his allies, is important for the president, who is widely expected to seek a new term in office in 2018 if he chooses to do so. In the 2011 election for the lower house, or State Duma, United Russia won 49 percent of the vote.United Russia benefits from its association with President Putin, who after 17 years in power as either president or prime minister enjoys a personal approval rating of about 80 percent, opinion polls show. Most voters do not see any viable alternative to Putin and his allies, and they fear a return to the chaos and instability of the 1990s, the period immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, if his rule ends.The ruling United Russia party, founded by Putin almost 16 years ago after he first became president, was on track to win 343 seats or 76 percent of 450 available seats in Russia's Duma, the lower house of parliament, the Central Election Commission said, after 93 percent of ballots had been counted.That is up from 238 seats in the last parliamentary election, in 2011, and would allow United Russia to change the constitution, although Putin can run again under the existing one as he was prime minister between his second and third terms.Election officials said that turnout was nearly 48 percent, substantially lower than the 60 percent turnout at the last parliamentary election.There was some evidence of voter apathy during the day on Sunday as people went to polling stations across Russia's 11 times zones, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea.Putin, speaking to United Russia campaign staff a few minutes after polling stations closed on Sunday night, said the win showed voters still trusted the leadership despite an economic slowdown made worse by Western sanctions over Ukraine."We can say with certainty that the party has achieved a very good result; it's won," Putin said at the United Russia headquarters, where he arrived together with his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, who is prime minister and the party's leader.Alluding to the spluttering economy, which is forecast to shrink this year by at least 0.3 percent, Putin said: "We know that life is hard for people, there are lots of problems, lots of unresolved problems. Nevertheless, we have this result."Putin's aides are likely to use the result as a springboard for his own re-election campaign, though he has not yet confirmed he will seek another term.Other parties trailed far behind United Russia.The Communist party was in second place with 13.5 percent of the vote, outstripping the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democrats on 13.3 percent. The Just Russia party won 6.2 percent, according to the near complete official vote count.Sergei Neverov, secretary of United Russia's General Council, hailed the result on Monday as an endorsement of Putin and his policies."We are grateful to our people...for supporting United Russia, a party founded by Vladimir Putin, for backing a course that is being implemented today by our president," Neverov told a news conference.Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, told reporters the "overwhelming majority" of voters had come out for Putin, handing him what he called "an impressive vote of confidence."