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Political Parties Of Russia

Дата публикации: 04 сентября 2007
Публикатор: Научная библиотека Порталус
Рубрика: RUSSIA (TOPICS) POLITICS →
Источник: (c) http://russia.by
Номер публикации: №1188909936


In the elections to the State Duma held 12 December 1993, 225 of the 450 seats were elected on the basis of proportional representation from party lists, which had to receive a minimum of 5% of the national vote to gain representation. The other 225 seats were elected from single-member districts.

The party to receive the largest number of seats (76) was the radical reformist Russia's Choice led by Boris Yeltsin's former acting prime minister, Egor Gaidar. The centrist New Regional Policy group (which was actually formed by nonaligned deputies from single member districts after the election) won 65. Vladimir Zhirinovsky's ultranationalist, antidemocratic Liberal Democratic Party won 63. The pro-Communist Agrarian Party won 55 seats, while the Communist Party of the Russian Federation won 45. Six other parties or blocs (some of which were also formed after the election) won between 12 and 30 seats each.

Deputies to the 178-seat Council of the Federation were elected in two-member districts, where they mostly ran as individuals. Of the 171 seats that were filled, only 27 identified themselves with a particular party. The ultranationalists, Communists, and their sympathizers predominated in the State Duma.

In the December 1995 elections, the Communists again dominated the Duma, taking 149 of the 450 seats. They were supported by two left-wing factions, Power to the People (37 seats) and the Agrarians (35); together they were only 5 votes shy of an outright majority. The center-right party, Our Home Is Russia, won 50 seats, as did Vladimir Zhirinovsky's far-right Liberal Democratic Party, and Yabloko, the moderate-reformist bloc led by Grigoriy Yavlinsky.

In the December 1999 Duma elections, six parties surmounted the 5% threshold on the party list vote, accounting for over 80% of the votes cast. Three of the six parties that received seats in the party list vote were created just prior to the election. (This did not include the newly formed ultranationalist Zhirinovskiy bloc, which was essentially a relabeling of his Liberal Democratic Party.) Unity ("The Bear") was created in late September 1999 by the Yeltsin government, and the Union of Right-Wing Forces and Fatherland-All Russia (OVR) in August 1999. In contrast to previous Duma races, many liberal groups (with the major exception of Yabloko) cooperated in forming the Union of Right-Wing Forces electoral bloc to enhance their chances for surmounting the 5% hurdle. The newly formed Unity and Union blocs received crucial publicity when Putin endorsed them. Results from the single-member constituency races added some seats to those gained by the six successful parties and provided a few seats for minor parties. In all, the Communist Party won 120 seats, Unity 73, OVR 70, Union 29, Yabloko 20, and the Zhirinovskiy bloc 19. Unaffiliated candidates won 95 seats, and a few seats faced runoffs. A little over one-third of the deputies elected were incumbents from the previous Duma.

In general, the election represented a major loss for Our Home (headed by presidential aspirant and former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin), which no longer was a faction in the legislature. Zhirinovskiy's bloc lost more than half its seats, compared to 1995, as did Yabloko. The new Duma convened in January 2000, and in a bold move, Unity and the Communist Party temporarily joined forces to grab the largest number of leadership posts and committee chairmanships.

In the first round of the June 1996 presidential election, Aleksandr I. Lebed received 15% of the vote to Yeltsin's 35% and Communist party candidate Gennadiy A. Zyuganov's 32%. Lebed, a retired general viewed by voters as a tough law-and-order strong man, dropped out of the race when Yeltsin named him national security advisor. Lebed gave his support to Yeltsin, which helped Yeltsin win 54% of the vote in the 3 July 1996 election. Two months later, however, Yeltsin forced Lebed out of the government. Yeltsin was barred from running for a third term.

Toward the end of his second term Yeltsin confronted growing unpopularity and instability in his administration. Opposition forces (including Communist party, Moscow-oriented Yuri Luzhkov and groups of local governors) did not take any drastic measures to bring Yeltsin down.

The Communist Party tried unsuccessfully to reconcile a range of leftist groups to back a common candidate, Genadiy Zuganov, against Vladimir Putin. Another candidate, Yurii Luzhkov, won the support of Muscovites and attempted to appeal for support to the governors. Meanwhile the governors were forming coalitions that later resulted in the formation of the Fatherland-All Russia (OVR) party affiliated with Yevgeni Primakov. Primakov was a popular politician who was credited with bringing Russia out of the 1998 financial crises. As a result, OVR became a threat to Yeltsin. In response, Yeltsin organized a media campaign to discredit the OVR party and Primakov in particular, and to promote Vladimir Putin.

In 1999, six months before the end of his term, President Yeltsin resigned from power, appointing Putin as an acting president. Putin then issued a decree granting Yeltsin and his family complete immunity from persecution. Yeltsin's resignation moved the term of election to March, leaving the opponents with less time to prepare. In little time, Putin managed to organize strong support for Unity and forged cooperation between Unity and OVR. In the first round of presidential elections held on 26 March 2000, among the 11 candidates, Putin won 53% of 75.2 million votes, trumping his nearest rival by 23.7%. The runner-up, Gennadiy Zyuganov, received 29%, down from the 32% he received in the first round of the 1996 race. Putin was formally inaugurated as president on 7 May 2000.

National elections were held again 7 December 2003, with Putin's Unity party winning 37.1% of the vote. The Communist Party came in second with 12.7% of the vote, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's ultranationalist party (the Liberal Democratic Party) took 11.6%. The pro-Western liberal parties--Union of Right Forces (SPS) and Yabloko--faired poorly. Another leftist-nationalist party, Rodina, was formed. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the government used resources and control of the media to dominate the election.

In March 2004, Putin ran for a second term. He was reelected with more than 70% of the vote. His closest opponent, Communist Party candidate Nikolai Kharitonov, got 13.7%. The next presidential election was scheduled for March 2008.

Опубликовано на Порталусе 04 сентября 2007 года

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