Parliamentary elections took place in the
Republic of Crimea on 14 September 2014. These were the first elections since
Crimea's annexation into the Russian Federation earlier that year. The outcome was an overwhelming victory for President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
's
United Russia
United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...
party.
Background
After the
2014 Crimean crisis
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.
The Revolution of Dign ...
, following the passage of a
secession referendum,
which international community widely saw as illegal, the
declaration of independence of the
Republic of Crimea from Ukraine and the
process of accession to
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
that followed it, on 11 April the
State Council of Crimea approved a joint appeal from Crimea and Sevastopol's Legislative Assembly to
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
, asking him to bring forward parliamentary elections from 2015 to September 2014 "to accelerate the integration of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into the system of government of the Russian Federation".
On 17 April Putin submitted a draft law on parliamentary elections in Crimea and Sevastopol to the
State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
, setting 14 September 2014 as the election date. On this day also election were held in 30 Russian regions and 14 regional (Russian) legislatures.
[Election Victories Strengthen Putin's Grip Around Russia and Crimea]
nytimes.com
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
(SEPT. 14, 2014)
Electoral system
According to Crimean State Council Chairman
Vladimir Konstantinov
Vladimir Nikolaevich Konstantinov (russian: Владимир Николаевич Константинов; born March 19, 1967) is a Russians, Russian-Americans, American former professional ice hockey player who played his entire National Hocke ...
, the elections will be conducted according to a mixed system. Fifty deputies will be elected on
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...
and 25 in
majority constituencies.
Russian
Central Election Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
Chairman
Vladimir Churov
Vladimir Yevgenyevich Churov (russian: Владимир Евгеньевич Чуров; born March 27, 1953, in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Russian official and politician. From March 2007 to March 2016, he served a member (delegated by the S ...
said that the commission filed a request for funding with the government for 400 million roubles to conduct the election.
On 9 September 2014
Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov
Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov (russian: Сергей Валерьевич Аксёнов, uk, Сергій Валерійович Аксьонов, ro, Serghei Valerievici Aksionov; born 26 November 1972) is a Russian politician serving, since ...
announced that Crimean residents "who did not manage to obtain a
passport of the Russian Federation" would be able to participate in the elections using their "Ukrainian local registration".
[Crimeans in the "elections" allowed to vote with Ukrainian passport]
Ukrayinska Pravda
''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukraini ...
(9 September 2014)
Issues
The local
Crimean Tatars had called for a boycott of the elections.
[
Opposition figures in Crimea complained that they were deprived of a chance to win seats because of "]Administrative resource Administrative resource is the ability of political candidates (and parties) to use their official positions or connections to government institutions to influence the outcome of elections.
The term is widely used in Russia and other former USSR c ...
-tactics" that made sure unapproved challengers would have no chance of gaining traction.[
]
Results
Only two parties overcame the election threshold: United Russia
United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...
won 70 mandates of the Crimean Republic's State Council 75 seats because its candidates won in all 25 single-member constituencies and it won 71.06% of the party-list vote; the other 5 mandates went to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
)
, abbreviation = LDPR (English)ЛДПР (Russian)
, native_name =
, newspaper = ''For the Russian People''
, youth_wing =
, seats1_title = Seats in the Federation Council
, seats1 =
, seats2_title ...
who won 8.14% of the party-list vote.[Russia's Central Election Commission Recognizes Crimea's Parliament Vote as Valid](_blank)
/ref>[United Russia wins 70 out of 75 seats in Crimean parliament — preliminary count](_blank)
/ref> The voter turnout was 53.61%.
803 candidates had tried to win seats; 108 candidates in one of the single-member constituencies and the rest as candidates as member of 12 political parties.
Opinion polls
According to a poll by August/September 2014 poll by the Crimean Academy of Sciences the United Russia
United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...
party would receive 95% of the votes in the 25 in majority constituencies and about 67% of the votes on the all-Crimean party lists. 10% of the other votes on the party list were predicted to go to the LDPR (most of these voters were believed to live in south Crimea), 8% to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
, anthem =
, seats1_title = Seats in the State Duma
, seats1 =
, seats2_title = Seats in the Federation Council
, seats2 =
, seats3_title = Governors
, seats3 =
, seats4_title ...
(pollsters noted that their popularity (compared with three month earlier) was diminishing), 4.5% to Rodina and A Just Russia, 2,5% to Patriots of Russia and about 3% to other parties. The Crimean Academy of Sciences predicted a turnout of 80%.["United Russia" surely wins the elections in Crimea - poll]
Kriminform (8 September 2014)
References
{{Crimean elections
2014 elections in Russia
2014 elections in Ukraine
Elections in Crimea
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
Regional legislative elections in Russia