Elections to the eleventh
Supreme Soviet were held in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
on 4 March 1984.
[ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1642 ] They were the last in the Soviet Union to be held before
Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of
perestroika and
demokratizatsiya resulted in partially free elections in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
. They were also the last direct elections to the Supreme Soviet, as in 1989 deputies were elected to the Congress of People's Deputies, who then elected the Supreme Soviet.
Electoral system
Candidates had to be nominated by the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) or by a public organisation.
[Nohlen & Stöver, p1630] However, all public organisations were controlled by the party and were subservient to a 1931 law that required them to accept party rule.
[ The CPSU itself remained the only legal one in the country.
Voters could vote against the CPSU candidate, but could only do so by using polling booths, whereas votes for the party could be cast simply by submitting a blank ballot.][ Turnout was required to be over 50% for the election to be valid.][
]
Candidates
CPSU candidates accounted for around three quarters of the nominees, whilst many of the others were members of Komsomol.
Results
With over 184 million Soviet citizens voting in the election, over 99% of the votes went to a deputy to the Supreme Soviet, with over 100,000 votes against Party candidates, the lowest for any election in the Soviet Union.[''Party, State, and Citizen in the Soviet Union: A Collection of Documents'', edited by Mervyn Matthews, London: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989, p. 5-6, 16-18.]
Soviet of the Union
Soviet of Nationalities
References
{{Soviet elections
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Legislative elections in the Soviet Union
One-party elections
Single-candidate elections
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...