Russian legislative election, 1999

Russian legislative election, 1999

19 December 1999
All 450 seats to the State Duma 226 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Gennady Zyuganov Sergey Shoigu Yevgeny Primakov Party Communist Party Unity Fatherland – All Russia Last election 157 – – Seats won 113 73 68 Seat change 44 New New Popular vote 16,196,024 15,549,182 8,886,753 Percentage 24.29% 23.32% 13.33% Swing 1.37pp – –   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   110px Leader Sergey Kiriyenko Grigory Yavlinsky Vladimir Zhirinovsky Party Union of Rightist Forces Yabloko Zhirinovsky Bloc Last election – 45 51 Seats won 29 20 17 Seat change New 25 34 Popular vote 5,677,247 3,955,611 3,990,038 Percentage 8.52% 5.93% 5.98% Swing – 0.96pp 5.20pp

File:Russian Legislative Election 1999.png

Election results

Parliamentary elections were held in Russia on 19 December 1999. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. According to the 1993 electoral law, 225 members of the house were allocated proportionally, using statewide party lists, while other 225 members were elected in single-member constituencies, using first past the post system. Like in the previous election, this system resulted in a large number of parties competing for the proportional seats, as well as a significant number of independent deputies elected.

Rules

To secure a place on the ballot, parties had to have registered with the Russian Ministry of Justice one year before the election (instead of six months in previous elections). As an alternative to gathering 200,000 signatures, they had the option of paying a deposit of just over two million roubles, returnable if the party won at least 3.0 percent of the list vote. In order to increase proportionality, the law provided that if parties reaching the five per cent threshold got in total 50 per cent or less of the vote, parties with at least 3.0 per cent of the vote would also win seats by declining numbers of votes up to the point at which the total share of vote exceeded 50 per cent. However, if after this procedure the parties winning seats still had less than 50 per cent of the vote, the election was to be deemed invalid. In the single-member district ballots, if votes cast against all exceeded the votes of each candidate, a repeat election had to be held within four months. As a result, repeat elections had to be held in eight districts. Finally, as an alternative to gathering signatures in support of their nomination, single-member district candidates were also given the option of paying a deposit of 83,490 roubles, returnable if she won at least 5.0 percent of the district vote.

Campaign

The early election campaign saw the initial surge in popularity of Fatherland-All Russia bloc, led by the Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, which tried to capitalize upon the perceived incapacity of President Boris Yeltsin and the weakness of his administration. The tide had turned, however, when Yeltsin designated Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister and his eventual successor. On 24 November, Putin announced that "as a citizen" he will support the recently formed pro-government bloc Interregional Movement "Unity", headed by General Sergei Shoigu, a member of all Russian governments since 1994.

Results

Party	PR			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
Communist Party	16,196,024	24.29	67	8,893,547	13.73	46	113	–44
Unity	15,549,182	23.32	64	1,408,801	2.17	9	73	New
Fatherland – All Russia	8,886,753	13.33	37	5,469,389	8.43	31	68	New
Union of Rightist Forces	5,677,247	8.52	24	2,016,294	3.11	5	29	New
Zhirinovsky Bloc	3,990,038	5.98	17	1,026,690	1.58	0	17	–34
Yabloko	3,955,611	5.93	16	3,289,760	5.07	4	20	–25
Communists and Workers of Russia - for the Soviet Union	1,481,890	2.22	0	439,770	0.68	0	0	–1
Women of Russia	1,359,042	2.04	0	326,884	0.50	0	0	–3
Russian Pensioners' Party	1,298,971	1.95	0	480,087	0.74	1	1	New
Our Home – Russia	790,983	1.19	0	1,733,257	2.67	7	7	–48
Russian Party for the Protection of Women	536,022	0.8	0	–	–	–	0	New
Congress of Russian Communities-Yuri Boldyrev Movement	405,298	0.61	0	461,069	0.71	1	1	–4
Stalinist Bloc for the USSR	404,274	0.61	0	64,346	0.10	0	0	New
For Civil Dignity	402,754	0.6	0	147,611	0.23	0	0	New
All-Russian Political Movement in Support of the Army	384,404	0.58	0	466,176	0.72	2	2	New
Peace, Labour, May	383,332	0.57	0	126,418	0.19	0	0	New
Andreii Nikolayev and Svyatoslav Fyodorov Bloc	371,938	0.56	0	676,437	1.04	1	1	New
Party of Peace and Unity	247,041	0.37	0	–	–	–	0	New
Russian All-People's Union	245,266	0.37	0	700,976	1.08	2	2	New
Russian Socialist Party	156,709	0.24	0	662,030	1.02	1	1	New
Russian Cause	111,802	0.17	0	1,846	0.00	0	0	New
Conservative Movement of Russia	87,658	0.13	0	125,926	0.19	0	0	New
All-Russian People's Party	69,695	0.10	0	–	–	–	0	New
All-Russian Socio-Political Movement "Spiritual Heritage"	67,417	0.1	0	594,426	0.92	1	1	New
Socialist Party of Russia	61,689	0.09	0	30,085	0.05	0	0	New
Social-Democrats	50,948	0.08	0	18,618	0.03	0	0	0
Russian Ecological Party "Kedr"	–	–	–	112,167	0.17	0	0	0
Russian Patriotic Popular Movement	–	–	–	10,481	0.02	0	0	New
Russian Party	–	–	–	7,918	0.01	0	0	0
Russian Conservative Party of Entrepreneurs	–	–	–	2,647	0.00	0	0	New
Independents	–	–	–	27,877,095	42.98	105	105	+28
Against all	2,198,702	3.32	–	7,695,171	11.86	8	8	–
Vacant seats	–	–	–	–	–	1	1	–
Invalid/blank votes	1,296,992	–	–	1,429,779	–	–	–	–
Total	66,667,682	100	225	66,295,701	100	225	450	0
Registered voters/turnout	108,073,956	61.7	–	108,073,956	61.3	–	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, University of Essex

Further reading

• Hesli, Vicki L. & William M. Reisinger (2003). The 1999–2000 Elections in Russia: Their Impact and Legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81676-9

reviewed by Luke March in: Slavic Review 63.4 (Winter 2004), 897–898.

• Russian general elections
• Final report on the parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation, 19 December 1999, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, February 13, 2000.
• Ad hoc Committee to observe the parliamentary elections in Russia (19 December 1999), PACE Report. January 24, 2000.