MOST RECENT ELECTIONS:

 Presidential, March 2, 2008

Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

Russia elects on the federal level a head of state - the president - and a legislature - the Federal Assembly. The president is elected for a four year term by the people. The Federal Assembly (Federalnoe Sobranie) has two chambers. The State Duma (Gosudarstvennaja Duma) has 450 members, elected for a four year term, all of them by proportional representation. The Federation Council (Sovet Federacii) has 178 members: 2 delegates for each region.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR RUSSIA? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Past Parliamentary Elections

The elections to the State Duma of the forth Convocation were held on 7 December, 2003. Half of the 450 deputies were elected from single mandate district constituencies on a one-round, first-past-the-post basis. The other 225 seats were distributed on a proportional basis to closed lists submitted by political parties or blocs that obtained more than 5 per cent of the valid votes cast in a single federal constituency ballot. To find out more about the election results click here. To read reports of the OSCE international election observation missions click here.

Past Presidential Elections

The presidential elections on 14 March, 2004 were conducted according to a majority run-off formula.  Incumbent Vladimir Putin was re-elected with 71.2% of the votes. To have more information about the election results click here; to read the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Report click here.

Recent Parliamentary Elections

The Russian electoral law has been modified since the last general elections in December 2003. On 2 December, 2007 the 450 members of the State Duma of the Fifth Convocation were elected by proportional representation. From eleven parties included in the ballot only four passed the 7 % threshold: United Russia obtained 64,3 % of the votes, followed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (11,6%), the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (8,1%) and Fair Russia (7,7%). To find out more about the latest Duma elections, candidates click here, read the articles at Wikipedia and visit the website of the Central Elections Commission of the Russian Federation.

Recent Presidential Elections

Election of the next President of the Russian Federation was held on March 2, 2008. Of more than 107 millions of Russian voters included in the voters lists 69.71 per cent came to the polls. Dmitry A. Medvedev has been elected as President of the Russian Federation, having gained 70,28 % of the votes. His candidacy was supported by president Vladimir Putin and the United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party, Civilian Power and Russian Ecological Pary „The Greens”. Presidential candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov obtained 17,72 % of the votes, followed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (9,35 %) and Andrei Bogdanov from the Democratic Party of Russia (1,3%).  

For information about the election results read the latest news here and visit the website of the Central Election Commission.