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Chief of State: President Dmitry Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV
Head of Government: Premier Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
Assembly: Russia has a bicameral Federal Assembly (Federalnoye Sobraniye) consisting of the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) with 178 seats and the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) with 450 seats.
Description of Russian electoral system:
The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term.
The Premier is appointed by the president.
In the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) 178 members are appointed by regional governing councils to serve 4-year terms*. In the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) 450 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.**
* There are 89 constituencies with a district magnitude of two.
** Seats are allocated using the Hare quota. There is one, nationwide district and a minimum threshold of 7%.
Russian Legislative elections, 2011
Legislative elections were held in Russia on 4 December 2011. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (the legislature). United Russia won the elections with 49.32% of the vote, taking 238 seats or 52.88% of the Duma seats.
This result was down from 64.30% of the vote and 70% of the seats in the 2007 elections. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation received 19.19% of the vote and 92 seats, while A Just Russia received 13.24% and 64 seats, with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russiagetting 56 seats with 11.67% of the vote. Other partiesdid not cross the 7% election threshold. The list of parties represented in the parliament did not change.
United Russia lost the two-thirds constitutional majority it had held prior to the election, but it still won an absolute majority of seats in the Duma, even though it had less than 50% of the popular vote. The Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia all gained new seats compared to the previous 2007 elections.
Electoral irregularities and assessment
During and after the election international media and local independent websites reported serious irregularities during the election, including ballot stuffing, misuse of state resources, media bias and lack of impartiality by the election commission. The Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported more than 1,100 official complaints filed of election irregularities across the country, including vote fraud, obstruction of observers and illegal campaigning.
Reports by participating parties
Members of the A Just Russia, Yabloko and Communist parties reported that certain voters were shuttled between polling stations, casting several ballots. The Yabloko and Liberal Democratic parties reported that some of their observers had been banned from witnessing the sealing of the ballot boxes and from gathering video footage, and others groundlessly expelled from polling stations. The ruling United Russia party alleged that opposition parties broke campaign law by distributing leaflets and newspapers at polling stations, and that at some polling stations the voters were ordered to vote for the Communist party with threats of violence.
Reports by independent groups and observers
At a number of polling stations throughout the country, observers reported that final results published by the Central Election Commission differed drastically from results recorded by observers, with the “official” numbers sometimes showing the United Russia vote inflated by a factor of two or three.
In Moscow, the opposition activist group Citizen Observer estimated that United Russia had stolen 17% of the popular vote from other parties.
In Saint Petersburg, independent activist group Right to Elect (”Право выбора”) attempted to register all differences between observers’ protocols and the data of the Central Election Commission. They found that comparable shares of differences in votes were in favour not only of the United Russia, but of CPRF and LDPR parties as well (2.68%, 1.49% and 2.67% respectively as of the data on 13th December).
Reports by international observers
International observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) documented numerous violations of electoral law They found that whilst the preparations for the elections were technically well administered, they were marked by a “convergence of the State and the governing party” They said they witnessed “undue interference of state authorities”, “partiality of most media” and “lack of independence of the election administration”. Denying registration to some political parties narrowed political competition, according to the OSCE The OCSE concluded that “This…did not provide the necessary conditions for fair electoral competition.” However, international observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States reported that the elections “were held legally and without serious violations.”
Official reaction to the reports on irregularities
According to Vladimir Putin’s Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, the known accumulated volume of all reports on falsifications affects no more than 0.5% of total votes, and so this could not be a basis to reconsider the results of the elections
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev called for an investigation of all reports on irregularities, but voiced his disagreement with slogans and calls by the protesters on the post-election meetings.
Yury Chaika, the Prosecutor General of Russia, said that the data on falsifications will be analyzed, but said also that violations were local and didn’t affect the overall result, and that therefore there is no reason to cancel the results of the elections.
In the run-up to the election, opposition activists were rounded up by police or detained in Moscow.1 During the elections a wide array of traditional manipulations were used such as ballot box stuffing or pressure on civil servants to vote. Similar to former elections, regional leaders were ordered to return high votes in favor of the incumbent ruling party.2 Thus, Soviet-like high figures were registered in the North Caucasus republics, with a special mention for Chechnya, where allegedly 99.48% of voters backed United Russia, with a turnout of 99.51%, while United Russia support in Dagestan, Ingushetia or Kabardino-Balkaria reached a record high of 90%-91%. These results can be explained – to a great extent – by a system based on authority. North Caucasian leaders rule these republics like their private fiefdoms, especially in Chechnya, where Ramzan Kadyrov has ruled with an iron fist since 2007.
A more modern way to silence the opposition was also employed: cyber attacks on liberal media websites (Kommersant daily, LiveJournal blogs) and on the site of the sole Russian independent election observer, Golos. In the two days following the election, between 6,000 and 15,000 people rallied in Moscow to protest the results and several hundred did the same in other regions.
According to independent rights group Agora, up to 1,000 people were arrested in the capital. In the meantime, opposition Yabloko party head Sergei Mitrokin was briefly detained. On 10 December 2011, at least 25,000 people, the biggest demonstration since 1991, gathered in the center of Moscow to denounce the election outcome. Given all these events, we can consider that Russia has entered a new cycle in its political life.
United Russia’s monopolization of power has ended, as it could not change the Constitution to please the Kremlin again. The next Duma will be more open for debate, especially in serious matters like the federal budget vote. Thus, real parliamentarianism and democracy could emerge in the country, if the three other parties play the role of constructive opponents and take an active part in decision-making. The future of United Russia will depend on its ability to compromise with the other political forces for the sake of the country. Yet, since the early 2000s this party has been used to impose its views on every matter.
Contrary to many analysts’ beliefs, the announcement by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at United Russia Congress on 24 September 2011 of job swapping with Dmitry Medvedev, in case he returns to the Kremlin in March 2012, deeply shocked many Russians, especially among the emerging urban middle-class, the young and educated people. Those people were attracted by Medvedev’s promises of modernization and the corresponding changes in the economy, society and politics. By preventing President Medvedev from running for a second term, Putin committed a political mistake. Instead, he should have decided to leave as his historical role – the consolidation of the Russian state – has been achieved. The aftermath of Duma elections lays the ground for a more competitive presidential election, on 4 March 2012, which will be closely watched by the Russian voters, as well as by national and foreign observers.
Aftermath of Duma elections – Protests
The parliamentary elections that took place in Russia on 4 December 2011 usher in a new era for the post-Soviet political system in the country. The poor results registered by the Kremlin’s party, United Russia – amid allegations of wide- spread vote-rigging – show that its decade-long domination is over.
Tens of thousands protested December 10, 2011 in Bolotnaya Square, Moscow over allegations of election fraud in parliamentary elections won by United Russia, the ruling political party, led by current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The exact number of protesters present is unknown; estimates for the Moscow protest vary from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand, and rallies on a more minor scale also took place in other Russian cities—including Saint Petersburg. Voice of America(VoA) reported the demonstrations as the largest pro-democracy protests since Vladimir Putin came to power eleven years ago. Other reports describe the demonstrations as the greatest since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Police estimated that ten thousand people were present at demonstrations in St. Petersburg. Corruption and a rejection of Putin were the most commonly-cited grievances from questioned protesters.
Opposition leader Evgenia Chirikova told VoA the protests were in favour of fresh elections, and the release of political prisoners. During the demonstrations, protesters chanted “[p]olice, part of the people” at the riot police. Echo of Moscow host Alexei Venediktov described the protesters as “the new generation, the Putin generation”. These people “voted, had their votes stolen, and now they want a fair system”, said Venediktov.
Konstantin Kosachyov, a United Russia parliamentarian, dismissed the concept of discussions with the protest organisers. “With all respect for the people who came out to protest, they are not a political party,” he stated. Student Daniil Klubov, a leader of the St. Petersburg rally, told the BBC that he does not “belong to any political movement” and is “just a student who is tired of all these lies”.
In December 2011, Russian police arrested an estimated 1,600 people after street protests. In anticipation of yesterday’s protests, fifty thousand police and riot police were drafted into Moscow. Under one hundred arrests were made across the country during the day of protest.
Television stations operated by the Russian government provided no coverage of protests in Russia from last week’s election, but lifted the blackout one week on, broadcasting images of thousands filling a Moscow park, spilling over a bridge and covering a facing embankment.
On 23.12.2011, Moscow authorities declared an obligatory test for all high school students, scheduling it for the exact time of protests on Saturday; protest leader Alexey Navalny is currently imprisoned by order of a Russian judge. And, a Russian health board warned of respiratory diseases being contracted when being in large crowds. Russian Ground Forces cautioned that they would be observing, looking for instances of draft evasion as protesters walked through metal detectors.
On 24.12.2011, Mikhail Gorbachev, who resigned as Soviet president 20 years ago, has urged Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to follow his example and step down. Gorbachev said if Putin stepped down now he would be remembered for the positive things he did during his 12 years in power
In March 2012, Putin himself will face voters, seeking a new six-year term as Russian President. VoA reported in December 2011 that his presidential bid looked likely to succeed; however, that outcome now seems less predictable.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on 27.12.2011 discounted calls for a review of the disputed December 4 parliamentary elections that have sparked widespread protests and calls for reform.
“The elections to the State Duma are over,” Putin said. “All parliamentary factions have started to work. The speaker has been elected. The Duma is functioning. Any kind of revision is out of the question,” Putin said.
The only exception, he said, would be if any irregularities were found, “the court will have to look into them and adopt an objective ruling.”
Putin’s ruling United Russia Party received 49.5 percent of the vote, down from 64 percent four years ago, in an election widely viewed as marred by vote rigging and ballot-box stuffing. It kept Putin’s party in power, although in diminished form.
