1993 Russian legislative election

Summary

Parliamentary elections were held in Russia on 12 December 1993.[1] They were the first parliamentary elections in post-Soviet Russia and the only time to the Federation Council,[2] with future members appointed by provincial legislatures and governors.

1993 Russian legislative election
Russia
← 1990 12 December 1993 1995 →
State Duma election

All 450 seats in the State Duma
226 seats needed for a majority
Turnout54.34% (Decrease22.66pp)
Party Leader % Seats
LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky 22.92 64
VR Yegor Gaidar 15.51 62
Communist Gennady Zyuganov 12.40 42
ZhR Alevtina Fedulova 8.13 24
APR Mikhail Lapshin 7.99 38
YaBL Grigory Yavlinsky 7.86 27
PRES Sergey Shakhray 6.73 22
DPR Nikolay Travkin 5.52 15
RDDR Anatoly Sobchak 4.08 4
Civic Union Arkady Volsky 1.93 7
BRNI Vyacheslav Laschevsky 1.25 1
DM Konstantin Frolov 0.70 3
Independents 135
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Most voted-for party by region
Chairman of the Supreme Soviet before Chairman of the State Duma after
Ruslan Khasbulatov[a]
Independent
Ivan Rybkin
APR
Federation Council election

All 178 seats in the Federation Council
Turnout54.34%
Party % Seats
Independents

100 171
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Chairman of the Federation Council after
Vladimir Shumeyko
Independent

Background edit

The 1993 general election was taking place in the aftermath of the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, a violent confrontation on the streets of Moscow which resulted in the dissolution of the previous Russian parliament by military force. Boris Yeltsin hoped to resolve the political turmoil by decreeing for the election to the new Russian parliament and the constitutional referendum to take place on 12 December 1993.

Electoral system edit

The new election law adopted for the 1993 Duma election stipulated half the 450 Duma members were elected by a party-list system of proportional representation, and half were elected as individual representatives from single-member districts. Every Russian voter thus received two different ballots. The proportional representation ballot required each voter to endorse an electoral organization or vote against all of them. By contrast, the single-member district ballot required a voter to endorse an individual, whose party affiliation, if any, could not be given on the ballot.

In order to nominate a list of candidates in the proportional representation ballot, a party or electoral organization had to gather 100,000 signatures from the electorate, of which no more than 15% could be from any one region or republic. The method used to calculate the number of seats won by each party was the Hare method, with a threshold of 5.0 per cent of the valid vote, including votes cast against all, but excluding invalid ballots. To secure a place on a single-member district ballot, candidates had to gather the signatures of at least 1.0 percent of the constituency electorate. The winner in each single-member districts contest was simply the candidate with the plurality of votes, regardless of the number of votes cast against all.

Political blocs edit

Bloc Abbr. First troika Political position Ideologies Notes
1 Agrarian Party of Russia APR Mikhail Lapshin • Alexander Davydov • Alexander Zaveryukha Left-wing Agrarian socialism / Collectivism [3]
2 Yavlinsky–Boldyrev–Lukin YaBL Grigory YavlinskyYury BoldyrevVladimir Lukin Centre-left Social democracy / Social liberalism
3 Future of Russia–New Names BRNI Vyacheslav Laschevsky • Oleg Sokolov • Vladimir Mironov Centre Youth politics / Social policies
4 Choice of Russia VR Yegor GaidarSergei KovalevElla Pamfilova Centre-right Conservative liberalism / Liberal conservatism
5 Civic Union for Stability, Justice and Progress GS Arkady Volsky • Nikolay Bekh • Alexander Vladislavlev Centre to centre-left Social democracy / Anti-Yeltsinism / Federalism
6 Democratic Party of Russia DPR Nikolay TravkinStanislav Govorukhin • Oleg Bogomolov Centre-right Conservatism
7 Dignity and Charity DM Konstantin Frolov • Nikolai Gubenko • Vyacheslav Grishin Big tent Federalism / Veterans' rights / Disabled rights
8 Communist Party of the Russian Federation CPRF Gennady ZyuganovVitaly SevastyanovViktor Ilyukhin Left-wing to far-left Communism / Marxism–Leninism / Left-wing nationalism
9 Constructive-Ecological Movement of Russia "Kedr" KEDR Lyubov Lymar • Vladimir Chiburayev • Stanislav Baranov Centre to centre-left Green politics / Agrarianism
10 Liberal Democratic Party of Russia LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky • Viktor Kobelev • Vyacheslav Marychev Right-wing to far-right Right-wing populism / Pan-Slavism
11 Party of Russian Unity and Accord PRES Sergey ShakhrayAlexander ShokhinKonstantin Zatulin Centre-right Moderate liberalism / Conservatism / Regionalism
12 Women of Russia ZhR Alevtina FedulovaEkaterina LakhovaNatalya Gundareva Centre Women's rights / Pacifism
13 Russian Democratic Reform Movement RDDR Anatoly SobchakSvyatoslav FyodorovOleg Basilashvili Centre Liberal democracy / Federalism

Results edit

State Duma edit

 
PartyParty listConstituencyTotal
seats
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia12,318,56222.92591,604,7853.04564
Choice of Russia8,339,34515.51373,608,4976.842562
Communist Party of the Russian Federation6,666,40212.40321,848,8883.501042
Women of Russia4,369,9188.1322309,3780.59224
Agrarian Party of Russia4,292,5187.99222,879,4105.461638
Yavlinsky–Boldyrev–Lukin4,223,2197.86201,854,4473.52727
Party of Russian Unity and Accord3,620,0356.73191,433,1582.72322
Democratic Party of Russia2,969,5335.52141,142,8302.17115
Russian Democratic Reform Movement2,191,5054.0801,038,0681.9744
Civic Union1,038,1931.9301,591,4763.0277
Future of Russia–New Names672,2831.250411,4260.7811
Constructive-Ecological Movement "Kedr"406,7890.760301,2660.5700
Dignity and Charity375,4310.700445,1680.8433
Independents26,171,73749.61135135
Against all2,267,9634.228,117,10615.39
Vacant seats[b]66
Total53,751,696100.0022552,757,640100.00225450
Valid votes53,751,69693.16
Invalid/blank votes3,946,0026.84
Total votes57,697,698100.00
Registered voters/turnout106,170,83554.34
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, University of Essex, Boschler
  1. ^ Until 4 October 1993)
  2. ^ Five seats in Tatarstan were left vacant due to a low turnout (less than 25%) and were elected at a later date, whilst one seat in Chechnya remained unfilled.[4]

Federation Council edit

Although the Federation Council was contested on a non-party basis,[2] 11 were members of the Communist Party, six were members of Russia's Choice and nine were members of other parties.[5]

PartyVotes%Seats
Independents53,751,696100.00171
Vacant[a]7
Total53,751,696100.00178
Valid votes53,751,69693.16
Invalid/blank votes3,946,0026.84
Total votes57,697,698100.00
Registered voters/turnout106,170,83554.34
Source: Nohlen & Stöver
  1. ^ Five seats were elected at a later date, whilst two seats in Chechnya remained unfilled.[6]

Aftermath edit

The results of the polls proved to be disappointing for the Kremlin: the two competing pro-government parties, Russia's Choice and the Party of Russian Unity and Accord, gained 15.5% and 6.7% of the vote respectively and won 123 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. Neither party was able to control the parliamentary agenda nor impose the will of the president on the Duma. Lacking legislative success, both parties rapidly lost membership.

Parliamentary groups edit

The use of the mixed system for the election of the Duma produced a large number of deputies which were unaffiliated with any electoral bloc. By joining other parliamentary groups or forming groups of independent deputies, they could significantly influence the balance of power in the Duma. Hence, the parliamentary groups in the first two-year term of the Duma showed lack of stability and its numbers may be given only with approximation.

Parliamentary group Leader Seats
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky 53–64
Russia's Choice Yegor Gaidar 47–78
Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov 45–47
Women of Russia Yekaterina Lakhova 20–24
Agrarian Party of Russia Mikhail Lapshin 50–55
Yabloko Grigory Yavlinsky 27–28
Party of Russian Unity and Accord Sergey Shakhray 12–34
Democratic Party of Russia Nikolay Travkin 8–15
Liberal Democratic Union of 12 December Irina Khakamada 11–38
New Regional Politics - Duma-96 V. Medvedev 30–67
Russia I. Shichalin 34–38
Stability A. Leushkin 34–40
Russian Way (unregistered) Sergei Baburin 11–14
Strong State (Derzhava) (unregistered) V. Kobelev 4–5

See also edit

Notes edit

References edit

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1642 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ a b Nohlen & Stöver, p1656
  3. ^ https://www.rcoit.ru/lib/history/russian_federation/18050/ «Выборы в Государственную Думу Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации первого созыва»
  4. ^ Результаты выборов в Думу I созыва (in Russian).
  5. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1658
  6. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1659

External links edit

  • Russian general elections