Elections in Russia
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Elections in Russia gives information on elections and election results in Russia.
Russia elects on the federal level a head of state - the president - and a legislature - the Federal Assembly. The president is elected for a four year term by the people. The Federal Assembly (Federalnoe Sobranie) has two chambers. The State Duma (Gosudarstvennaja Duma) has 450 members, elected for a four year term, all of them by proportional representation. The Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) has 178 members: 2 delegates for each region.
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[edit] Historical overview
After the fall of the USSR, there have been four elections for presidency and parliament each (see the box at the bottom of the page). In both, the Communist Party first fell to below 20% of the votes, then rose sharply to over 30%, but then over two elections fell again to just over 10%.
In the four presidential elections, only once, in 1996, a second round was needed. There have been two presidents, with Boris Yeltsin elected in 1991 and 1996 and Vladimir Putin in 2000 and 2004 (Yeltsin had already relinquished power to Putin in 1999). The candidate of the Communist Party always came in second, first Nikolai Ryzhkov in 1991, then Gennady Zyuganov in 1996 and 2000 and finally Nikolay Kharitonov in 2004. Only in 1996 has there been another candidate who gained more than 10% of the votes (in the fist round), Alexander Lebed. The next presidential elections are scheduled for 2008.
In the parliamentary elections, the Communist Party was the biggest party in the 1995 (35%) and 1999 (24%) elections. The only other constant factors have been the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which has hovered between 5 and 15% of the votes and Yabloko, which won 10% of the votes in 1995 and around 5% in the other three elections. The only other parties that won more than 10% of the votes were Russia's Choice with 16% in 1993, Our Home is Russia with 12% in 1995, Unity Party of Russia with 23%, Fatherland-All Russia with 13% and People's Deputies Faction with 15% in 1999 and United Russia, an alliance of Unity Party of Russia and Fatherland - All Russia, which became the biggest party with 38% in 2003. The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for December 2007.
[edit] Latest elections
| Candidates | Nominating parties | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vladimir Putin | none, but supported by United Russia | 49,565,238 | 71.31 |
| Nikolay Kharitonov | Communist Party of the Russian Federation,
but a member of Agrarian Party of Russia | 9,513,313 | 13.69 |
| Sergey Glazyev | none, but supported by Rodina | 2,850,063 | 4.10 |
| Irina Khakamada | 2,671,313 | 3.84 | |
| Oleg Malyshkin | Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | 1,405,315 | 2.02 |
| Sergey Mironov | Russian Party of Life | 524,324 | 0.75 |
| Against all | 2,396,219 | 3.45 | |
| TOTAL | 68,925,785 | 100.00 | |
Russian presidential elections Image:Flag of Russia.svg |
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| 1991 | 1996 | 2000 | 2004 | 2008 |
| Russian parliamentary elections Image:Flag of Russia.svg |
| 1906 | 1907 (Jan) | 1907 (Oct) | 1912 | 1917 (CA) | 1993 | 1995 | 1999 | 2003 | 2007 |
| Russian referendums Image:Flag of Russia.svg |
| 1993 (Apr) | 1993 (Dec) |
