Elections in Russia

Gubernatorial elections are held yearly and are to be called upon by the president. These happen in September, by default, on the second Sunday of the month, but can timing is not always exact. These elections are direct and are held in 16 regions (subjects of the federation). Campaigning starts 28 days prior to the election.[10][11]

The two main systems of local government include Mayor–council government in which voters cast their ballot for the mayor who represents the executive branch, and another ballot for the city council. The other system is Council–manager government with a city manager, who is nominated by and accountable to the City Duma.

1993 (Constitution of 1993) – Article 97: Elections in Russia are direct, subject to universal suffrage, and free and fair

1995 – Amendment Article 97: Parties are now required to gather at least 200000 signatures and to sign for candidature no later than 6 months before the elections.[14]

1998 – Constitutional Court Judgement 26-P: 5% threshold is upheld by the Russian constitutional court

2002 – Law number 175: Mixed election of the state Duma is implemented with 50% of seats elected by a majority system for single-seat district votes (one deputy-one seat), and the other 50% through a proportional representation party list voting scheme.[15]

2003 – Mixed system is abolished for a fully proportional representation system, with a 7% threshold.

2013 – Putin requires a return to the old mixed system, making elections for parliament being subject to Law number 175 once again.[16]

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's party system has been characterised by the presence of a ruling party which is financed and staffed by the presidential administration, and in return, it provides support for the ruling administration.[17]

One study from Reuter et al. referred to criticism of mayoral and local self-government election in Russia. Findings being indicated that mayor candidates opposing the present ruling party, United Russia, had their elections cancelled more easily than those that could promote support for the ruling party.[13]

Another study from Enikolopov et al. performed an investigation where observers were strategically placed at polling stations to see the effect of their presence on United Russia's vote shares. Findings reveal that with observers, United Russia experienced an 11% loss in share of votes for the poll chosen.[18]

Since Vladimir Putin became President of Russia there has been increasing international criticism of the conduct of Russian elections.[19] European institutions who observed the December 2007 legislative elections concluded that these were not fair elections. Göran Lennmarker, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said that the elections "failed to meet many of the commitments and standards that we have. It was not a fair election."[20] Luc Van den Brande, who headed a delegation from the Council of Europe, referred to the "overwhelming influence of the president's office and the president on the campaign" and said there was "abuse of administrative resources" designed to influence the outcome. He also said there were "flaws in the secrecy of the vote." "Effectively, we can't say these were fair elections," he said at a news conference.[21]

In February 2008 The human rights organisation Amnesty International said that the presidential election on 2 March would not be a genuine election: "There is no real opposition ahead of the election. There is no real electoral campaign battle," Friederike Behr, Amnesty's Russia researcher, was quoted as saying. In a report on the elections, Amnesty said laws restricting non-government organizations, police breaking up demonstrations, and harassment from critics were all part of "a systematic destruction of civil liberties in Russia."[22] Another human rights organisation, Freedom House, said that the victory of Putin's party in the 2007 elections "was achieved under patently unfair and non-competitive conditions calling into doubt the result’s legitimacy."[23]

The Russian government has acted to prevent international observers monitoring Russian elections. In 2007 the OSCE was prevented from monitoring the legislative elections held in December.[24] In February 2008 the European Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights announced that it would not send observers to monitor the presidential election on 2 March, citing what it called "severe restrictions" imposed on its work by the Russian government. "We made every effort in good faith to deploy our mission, even under the conditions imposed by the Russian authorities", said Christian Strohal, the organization’s director. "The Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation".[25] The OSCE has also withdrawn its attempts to monitor the elections.

The 2011 Russian legislative elections were considered to be rigged in favor of the ruling party by a number of journalists and opposition representatives.[26] However public opinion-polls prior to the election suggested that the ruling party could count on the support of 45–55 percent of voters, which may suggest that there were no mass falsifications, despite isolated cases of fraud.[27] Nationwide exit polls were very close to the final results.[28]

In 2015 OSCE called the Russian government to respect and support the work of independent election observers, following a number of incidents where citizen observers were beaten or harassed in regional elections.[29] There is a widespread practice of increasing attendance on unpopular or controversial votes using financial bonus for everyone attending, free food, toys etc.[30]

• 2019 national electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• Electoral geography of Russia
• Elections in the Soviet Union

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• OSCE reports on elections in Russia
• Geo-electoral structure of Russia (N.Grishin)