1993 Russian legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Russia on 12 December 1993 to elect all 450 seats of the 1st State Duma of the Russian Federation. Additionally, the elections were the first and only instance of direct elections to the Federation Council, with future members appointed by provincial legislatures and governors.

The far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia won a total of 64 seats, the most deputies of any single bloc in the chamber. The pro-government Choice of Russia bloc came second with 62 deputies, and the anti-government Communist Party of the Russian Federation came third with 42. Five seats in Tatarstan were left vacant due to turnout below 25%, and one seat in Chechnya was also unfilled.

The elections were held concurrently with the 1993 Russian constitutional referendum.

Background

Since January 1993, there had been efforts between both elements within the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia and President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle. Boris Yeltsin and his alies hoped to create a parliament sympathetic to his reform agenda and minimise elements that were critical of his programme.

On 21 September, Yeltsin declared the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet dissolved. Alexander Rutskoy called Yeltsin's move a step toward a ''coup d'état''. The next day, the Constitutional Court held that Yeltsin had violated the constitution and could be impeached. During an all-night session, parliament declared the president's decree null and void. This began the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis.

With Yeltsin being victorious over parliament in the crisis, electoral law he declared by presidential decree was enacted, and his preferred constitutional draft put to referendum. Reformist parties supportive of Yeltsin were unsure how they would fair under the new electoral system.

Most political parties were not well-established, and instead functioned more akin to parliamentary groups than political parties. The parties with the most established organisational structures were there Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and the Agrarian Party of Russia. Political parties development were impacted by crises, and by their own improvisation in response to new institutions and the crises. Parties with less established structures had only a small window of time to prepare for Federal campaigning.

Electoral system

The new election law adopted for the 1993 Duma election stipulated a parallel voting system, with the 225 of the 450 seats being party-list proportional seats, and the other 225 as single-member constituency seats elected via first-past-the-post voting. Every voter thus received two different ballots, one for both kinds of seat. The party-list proportional representation ballot required each voter to endorse an electoral organization or vote against all of them. By contrast, the single-member constituency ballot required a voter to endorse an individual, whose party affiliation, if any, could not be given on the ballot.

The new election law also saw the introduction of an ' Against all' option on ballots.

In order to nominate a list of candidates for the party-list proportional representation ballot, a party or electoral alliance 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 constituency ballot, candidates had to gather the signatures of at least 1.0 percent of that constituency's 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.

Additionally, an election was held for the upper house, the Federation Council. Each of the 89 federal subjects of Russia served as a dual-member constituency, meaning a total of 178 seats. The two most voted-for candidates winning the seats. As the new constitution stated, both houses were elected for a two-year term. 7.

Political blocs

Results

State Duma

Federation Council

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

Aftermath

The results of the election proved to be disappointing for the government: 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.

Deputies elected for single-member constituency seats not already affiliated to a political party or bloc were able to affiliate or associate themselves with such. Some of these deputies chose to informally associate themselves with multiple.

The new Duma ratified the Yeltsin Constitution. The new constituiton produced a strong Presidency, particularly over the Duma as it confirmed the ability for the president to dissolve parliament, and to pass laws by presidential decree.

Parliamentary groups

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.

See also

*Elections in Russia
* List of members of the 1st Russian State Duma
* Viktor Chernomyrdin's First Cabinet
*1991 Russian presidential election
*1996 Russian presidential election

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Russian general elections

{{Russian elections

Legislative elections in Russia
Legislative
Legislative
1st State Duma of the Russian Federation
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Russia
1993 Russian constitutional crisis