Russian legislative election, 1999

Russian legislative election, 1999

19 December 1999

All 450 seats to the State Duma 226 seats needed for a majority Turnout 61.7%   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   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

Chairman before election Gennadiy Seleznyov Communist Party Chairman-designate Gennadiy Seleznyov Communist Party

Election results

Parliamentary elections were held in Russia on 19 December 1999.^[1] 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

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.

References

Elections and referendums in Russia
Presidential elections	1991 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2018
Legislative elections	1906 1907 (Jan) 1907 (Oct) 1912 1917 1938 1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1993 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2016
Gubernatorial elections	1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2012 2013 2014 2015
Regional elections	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Referendums	1991 1993 (Apr) 1993 (Dec)
See also: Elections and referendums in the Soviet Union