Russian legislative election, 2016

Russian legislative election, 2016

18 September 2016

All 450 seats to the State Duma 226 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party   Leader Dmitry Medvedev Gennady Zyuganov Party United Russia Communist Party Leader since 26 May 2012 14 February 1993 Last election 238 seats, 49.32% 92 seats, 19.19%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Sergey Mironov Vladimir Zhirinovsky Party A Just Russia LDPR Leader since 27 October 2013 12 April 1991 Last election 64 seats, 13.24% 56 seats, 11.67%

Chairman before election Sergey Naryshkin United Russia Chairman TBD

Legislative elections will be held in Russia on 18 September 2016, having been brought forward from 4 December.^[1] At stake are the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. United Russia is the ruling party after having won the 2011 elections with 49.32% of the vote, taking 238 seats (53%) of the seats in the State Duma.

Background

Although the elections are planned for 4 December 2016, deputies have been discussing the question of rescheduling to an earlier date since the spring of 2015, with the second and third Sundays of September or October 2016 being considered possible alternatives. According to opposition figures this initiative is explained by the desire of the government to prevent the victory of opposition forces.

On 1 July 2015 the Constitutional Court of Russia accepted the possibility of conducting early elections to the Duma in 2016 under certain conditions. According to the Court, the constitution does not require the election date to be exactly five years after the previous elections and the election date can be shifted if the following conditions are met:^[2]

• Shifting of the election date does not disrupt reasonable periodicity of elections.
• Limiting of the real terms of the Duma deputies is insignificant (less than a few months).
• Shifting of the election dates is announced in advance, so to give all the parties enough time to prepare for the elections.

On 19 June the State Duma approved the first reading of a bill to bring the election to the State Duma forward from 4 December 2016 to the third Sunday of September in 2016. The corresponding bill was adopted by the State Duma on the second and third (and final) reading with 339 deputies in favour and 102 against, with no abstentions. The document was developed by the speaker of the Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, and the three leaders of the Duma factions, Vladimir Vasilyev (United Russia), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (LDPR), and Sergei Mironov (A Just Russia). The initiative to transfer the date of elections was originally not supported by the deputies of the Communist Party, who called it an unconstitutional decision. Earlier, a similar opinion was expressed by the leader of the Russian Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov. The September elections were not satisfactory to the Communists in part because the debate fell in August, "when one will be in the garden, the latter on the beach, others with children" said Zyuganov. The Russian government supported the bill.

Electoral system

The State Duma will be elected on a single day for a term of five years, with the electoral system reverting to that used between 1993 and 2003; half of the 450 seats will be elected by proportional representation from party lists with a 5% electoral threshold, and the other half in single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system.^[3]

Campaign

Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation determined the 14 political parties that can expose lists of candidates without collecting signatures.^[4] Whilst other parties are required to present at least 200,000 signatures (with a maximum of 7,000 signatures per region).^[5]

Party with the right to participate without collecting signatures

Number		Party	Party leader	Convention date	Ideology
1		A Just Russia	Sergey Mironov		Social democracy / Democratic socialism
2		Liberal Democratic Party	Vladimir Zhirinovsky		Right-wing nationalism / Statism / Anti-communism
3		People's Freedom Party	Mikhail Kasyanov		Conservative liberalism / Liberal democracy
4		Communist Party	Gennady Zyuganov		Communism / Left-wing nationalism
5		Yabloko	Emilia Slabunova		Social liberalism / pro-Europeanism
6		United Russia	Dmitry Medvedev		Statism / Centrism / National conservatism
7		Right Cause	Boris Titov		Neoliberalism
8		Rodina	Alexei Zhuravlev		National conservatism / Ultranationalism
9		Patriots of Russia	Gennady Semigin		Democratic socialism / Left-wing nationalism
10		Communists of Russia	Maxim Suraykin		Communism / Marxism–Leninism
11		Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice	Yevgeny Artukh		Social conservatism
12		Russian Ecological Party "The Greens"	Oleg Mitvol[6]		Environmentalism / Centrism / Green politics
13		Civilian Power	Oleg Sidorov		Liberalism / Green politics
14		Civic Platform	Rifat Shaykhutdinov		Liberalism

Other parties intending to participate

Number		Party	Party leader	Convention date	Ideology
1		Progress Party[7]	Alexei Navalny		Liberalism / E-democracy / Pro-Europeanism
2		Monarchist Party[8]	Anton Bakov		Monarchism
3		Alliance of Greens and Social Democrats[9]	Alexander Zakondyrin		Grassroots democracy

Opinion polls

Date	Poll source	United Russia	Communist Party	Liberal Democratic Party	A Just Russia	People's Freedom Party	Yabloko	Civic Platform	Rodina	Patriots of Russia	Progress Party	The Greens	Right Cause	Communists of Russia
24 April 2016	WCIOM	48.5%	9.1%	9.9%	6.4%	0.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.5%	–	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%
17 April 2016	WCIOM	47.6%	10%	9.2%	5.6%	0.4%	1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.5%	–	0.5%	0.4%	0.6%
10 April 2016	FOM	46%	9%	11%	5%	1%	1%	1%	<1%	1%	–	–	<1%	<1%
10 April 2016	WCIOM	45.7%	10.3%	10.6%	6.6%	0.3%	1.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	–	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%
3 April 2016	WCIOM	47.9%	9%	8.5%	6.3%	0.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	–	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
27 March 2016	WCIOM[10]	47.5%	9.1%	9.3%	5.4%	0.4%	1.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	–	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%
20 March 2016	WCIOM	44.1%	10.1%	9.6%	6.3%	0.8%	1.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	–	0.3%	0.3%	0.6%
28 February 2016	WCIOM	46.2%	9.3%	8.1%	6.3%	0.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.7%	–	0.4%	0.7%	0.4%
10 February 2016	Levada Centre	39%	10%	5%	3%	<1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	2%	<1%	–	–
December 2015	WCIOM[10]	50%	9%	6%	5%	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
10 December 2015	Levada Centre	44%	10%	5%	2%	<1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	–	–
November 2015	WCIOM[10]	53%	8%	7%	5%	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
October 2015	WCIOM[10]	55%	8%	6%	5%	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
5 October 2015	Levada Centre	40%	11%	6%	3%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	–	–
7 September 2015	Levada Centre	43%	11%	5%	3%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	2%	–	–
20–23 February 2015	Levada Centre[11]	46%	9%	6%	2%	–	1%	2%	–	–	1%	–	–	–

References

1. "The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill to postpone the elections". Vedomosti. 19 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
2. "1 июля 2015 года Конституционный Суд РФ провозгласил Постановление по делу о толковании части 1 статьи 96 и частей 1, 2 и 4 статьи 99 Конституции Российской Федерации". Constitutional Court of Russia.
3. "The 2016 Elections will be held under the new electoral system". Vedomosti. 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
4. "Information on political parties allowed to participate in the election of deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation without the collection of voter signatures (in accordance with Article 44 of the Federal Law of 22 February 2014 "On elections of deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation")" (doc). Central Election Commission of Russia (cikrf.ru). 2014-10-28. Retrieved 2015-12-31.
5. law on the new procedure for the election to the State Duma
6. Mitvol, head the list of "The Greens" in the elections to the State Duma
7. Will participate in the elections on the basis of People's Freedom Party
8. «If Putin decides to declare himself king...»
9. Non-parliamentary parties are preparing for elections 2016
10. The average result for the month
11. In the absence of the column "against all"

External links

• Central Elections Commission of Russia
• WCIOM
• FOM
• 2016 State Duma Elections
• Full info on Ura.ru