1999 Russian legislative election

Legislative election were held in Russia on 19 December 1999 to elect the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly.[1] Like in the previous elections in 1995, the electoral system resulted in many parties competing for the proportional seats and a significant number of independent deputies elected.

1999 Russian legislative election

19 December 1999

All 450 seats in the State Duma
226 seats needed for a majority
Turnout61.7% 2.7 pp
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Gennady Zyuganov Sergey Shoygu 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 Right 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

Elected Chairman

Gennadiy Seleznyov
Communist Party

Election results
Liberal Democratic nominee Vladimir Zhirinovsky campaigning for his party

Electoral system

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.

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 on 9 August 1999 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 of the Russian Federation16,196,02424.29678,893,54713.7346113–44
Unity15,549,18223.32641,408,8012.17973New
Fatherland – All Russia8,886,75313.33375,469,3898.433168New
Union of Right Forces5,677,2478.52242,016,2943.11529New
Zhirinovsky Bloc3,990,0385.98171,026,6901.58017–34
Yabloko3,955,6115.93163,289,7605.07420–25
Communists and Workers of Russia - for the Soviet Union1,481,8902.220439,7700.6800–1
Women of Russia1,359,0422.040326,8840.5000–3
Russian Pensioners' Party1,298,9711.950480,0870.7411New
Our Home – Russia790,9831.1901,733,2572.6777–48
Russian Party for the Protection of Women536,0220.800New
Congress of Russian Communities-Yuri Boldyrev Movement405,2980.610461,0690.7111–4
Stalin Bloc – For the USSR404,2740.61064,3460.1000New
For Civil Dignity402,7540.60147,6110.2300New
All-Russian Political Movement in Support of the Army384,4040.580466,1760.7222New
Peace, Labour, May383,3320.570126,4180.1900New
Andreii Nikolayev and Svyatoslav Fyodorov Bloc371,9380.560676,4371.0411New
Party of Peace and Unity247,0410.3700New
Russian All-People's Union245,2660.370700,9761.0822New
Russian Socialist Party156,7090.240662,0301.0211New
Russian Cause111,8020.1701,8460.0000New
Conservative Movement of Russia87,6580.130125,9260.1900New
All-Russian People's Party69,6950.1000New
All-Russian Socio-Political Movement "Spiritual Heritage"67,4170.10594,4260.9211New
Socialist Party of Russia61,6890.09030,0850.0500New
Social-Democrats of Russia50,9480.08018,6180.03000
Russian Ecological Party "Kedr"112,1670.17000
Russian Patriotic Popular Movement10,4810.0200New
Russian Party7,9180.01000
Russian Conservative Party of Entrepreneurs2,6470.0000New
Independents27,877,09542.98105105+28
Against all2,198,7023.327,695,17111.8688
Vacant seats11
Invalid/blank votes1,296,9921,429,779
Total66,667,68210022566,295,7011002254500
Registered voters/turnout108,073,95661.7108,073,95661.3
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.

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1642 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
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