Moscow  - At least 32 persons were arrested at unauthorized protests in Moscow on Monday following the news that the governing United Russia party had won local elections in Moscow by a wide margin, police reported.

Special units of the Russian police moved in as demonstrators at one gathering burned ballots "in protest against voter fraud."

The incumbent United Russia won 66.3 of the vote, while the Communist party, with 13.3 per cent of the vote, was the only other party to make it into Moscow's 35-seat duma (council), the Interfax news agency reported, citing election officials.

The liberal party Yabloko, which lost its two seats in the duma, condemned 17-year reigning mayor Yury Luzhkov for carrying out "one of the all-time election frauds in Russia's recent history."

A spokesman for the Yabloko party, which failed to reach the 7- per-cent hurdle in Europe's largest city, announced that the party would appeal the election.

Among the complaints were those that other parties critical of the government were not allowed to register.

President Dmitry Medvedev however said that as far as he could see there have been no major electoral breaches in the "convincing victory" by United Russia.

The Moscow election is of considerable importance as the city commands a budget of about 35.4 billion dollars, about the same as the annual budget for the entire country of Ukraine.

Voter participation was reported at around 35 per cent.

Complaints of election fraud and obstruction of opposition parties were reported around Russia, which saw 30 million voters in 75 municipal elections go to the polls Sunday.

Elections were held for the first time in Chechnya and other autonomous republics in the troubled Caucasus region, with little violence reported.

Security was tight across Russia, with about 20,000 security personnel deployed in Moscow alone.  dpa