Parliamentary elections were held in Russia on 12 December 1993 to elect all 450 seats of the 1st State Duma of the Russian Federation. Additionally, the elections were the first and only instance of direct elections to the Federation Council, with future members appointed by provincial legislatures and governors.

The far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia won a total of 64 seats, the most deputies of any single bloc in the chamber. The pro-government Choice of Russia bloc came second with 62 deputies, and the anti-government Communist Party of the Russian Federation came third with 42. Five seats in Tatarstan were left vacant due to turnout below 25%, and one seat in Chechnya was also unfilled.

The elections were held concurrently with the 1993 Russian constitutional referendum.

Background

Since January 1993, there had been efforts between both elements within the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia and President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle. Boris Yeltsin and his alies hoped to create a parliament sympathetic to his reform agenda and minimise elements that were critical of his programme.

On 21 September Yeltsin declared the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet dissolved. Alexander Rutskoy called Yeltsin's move a step toward a coup d'état. The next day, the Constitutional Court held that Yeltsin had violated the constitution and could be impeached. During an all-night session, parliament declared the president's decree null and void.Постановление Верховного Совета Российской Федерации от 22 сентября 1993 года № 5790-I «О неотложных мерах по преодолению государственного переворота 21 сентября 1993 года» This began the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis.

With Yeltsin being victorious over parliament in the crisis, electoral law he declared by presidential decree was enacted, and his preferred constitutional draft put to referendum. Reformist parties supportive of Yeltsin were unsure how they would fare under the new electoral system.

Most political parties were not well-established, and instead functioned more akin to parliamentary groups than political parties. The parties with the most established organisational structures were there Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and the Agrarian Party of Russia. Political parties development were impacted by crises, and by their own improvisation in response to new institutions and the crises. Parties with less established structures had only a small window of time to prepare for Federal campaigning.

There were a total of 490 candidates competing for seats in the Federation Council, and for the State Duma, there were 1,757 candidates on party lists for the proportional representation seats, and 1,567 candidates running for the first-past-the-post electoral district seats.

Electoral system The new election law adopted for the 1993 Duma election stipulated a parallel voting system, with the 225 of the 450 seats being party-list proportional seats, and the other 225 as single-member constituency seats elected via first-past-the-post voting. Every voter thus received two different ballots, one for each kind of seats. The party-list proportional representation ballot required each voter to endorse an electoral organization or vote against all of them. By contrast, the single-member constituency ballot required a voter to endorse an individual, whose party affiliation, if any, could not be given on the ballot.

The new election law also saw the introduction of an 'Against all' option on ballots.

In order to nominate a list of candidates for the party-list proportional representation ballot, a party or electoral alliance had to gather 100,000 signatures from the electorate, of which no more than 15% could be from any one region or republic. The method used to calculate the number of seats won by each party was the Hare method, with a threshold of 5% of the valid vote, including votes cast against all, but excluding invalid ballots.

To secure a place on a single-member constituency ballot, candidates had to gather the signatures of at least 1% of that constituency's electorate. The winner in each single-member districts contest was simply the candidate with the plurality of votes, regardless of the number of votes cast against all.

Additionally, an election was held for the upper house, the Federation Council. Each of the 89 federal subjects of Russia served as a dual-member constituency, meaning a total of 178 seats. The two most voted-for candidates winning the seats. As the new constitution stated, both houses were elected for a two-year term. 7.

Political blocs №BlocFirst troikaPolitical positionIdeologies Notes1 Agrarian Party of RussiaAPRMikhail Lapshin • Alexander Davydov • Alexander ZaveryukhaLeft-wingAgrarian socialism / Collectivism2 Yavlinsky–Boldyrev–LukinRPRF, SDPR, YaBLGrigory Yavlinsky • Yury Boldyrev • Vladimir LukinCentre-leftSocial democracy / Social liberalism3 Future of Russia–New Names, "Civic Union" AssociationBRNIVyacheslav Laschevsky • Oleg Sokolov • Vladimir MironovCentreYouth politics / Social policies4 Choice of Russia, DR, , KPRVRYegor Gaidar • Sergei Kovalev • Ella PamfilovaCentre-rightConservative liberalism / Liberal conservatism5 Civic Union for Stability, Justice and ProgressRSPP, Renewal, , , GSArkady Volsky • Nikolay Bekh • Alexander VladislavlevCentre to centre-leftSocial democracy / Anti-Yeltsinism / Federalism6 Democratic Party of RussiaDPRNikolay Travkin • Stanislav Govorukhin • Oleg BogomolovCentre-rightConservatism7 Dignity and Charity, , Chernobyl Union of RussiaDMKonstantin Frolov • Nikolai Gubenko • Vyacheslav GrishinBig tentFederalism / Veterans' rights / Disabled rights8 Communist Party of the Russian FederationCPRFGennady Zyuganov • Vitaly Sevastyanov • Viktor IlyukhinLeft-wing to far-leftCommunism / Marxism–Leninism / Left-wing nationalism9 Constructive-Ecological Movement of Russia "Kedr"KEDRLyubov Lymar • Vladimir Chiburayev • Stanislav BaranovCentre to centre-leftGreen politics / Agrarianism10 Liberal Democratic Party of RussiaLDPRVladimir Zhirinovsky • Viktor Kobelev • Vyacheslav MarychevRight-wing to far-rightRight-wing populism / Pan-Slavism11 Party of Russian Unity and AccordPRESSergey Shakhray • Alexander Shokhin • Konstantin ZatulinCentre-rightModerate liberalism / Conservatism / Regionalism12 Women of RussiaZhRAlevtina Fedulova • Ekaterina Lakhova • Natalya GundarevaCentreWomen's rights / Pacifism13 Russian Democratic Reform MovementRDDRAnatoly Sobchak • Svyatoslav Fyodorov • Oleg BasilashviliCentreLiberal democracy / Federalism

Opinion polls Parties with more than 5% support are given in bold. Polling firmFieldwork dateLDPRVRCPRF YaBLZhRDPRRDDRPRESAPRGSBRNIDMKEDRAgainstallUnsureNotvoting FOM 1 Dec 1993 3 298.218.76.57.26.55.8 3.7 6 ISPR RAS 4–5 Dec 19931114 4 8106 4 3 2 1 4 95 2 13 21 ISPR RAS(exit poll) 12 Dec 1993182211128655 4 3 2 1 1 2 2

Results State Duma

Federation Council Although the Federation Council was contested on a non-party basis, 11 were members of the Communist Party, six were members of Russia's Choice and nine were members of other parties.

Aftermath

The results of the election proved to be disappointing for the government: the two competing pro-government parties, Russia's Choice and the Party of Russian Unity and Accord, gained 15.5% and 6.7% of the vote respectively and won 123 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. Neither party was able to control the parliamentary agenda nor impose the will of the president on the Duma. Lacking legislative success, both parties rapidly lost membership.

Deputies elected for single-member constituency seats not already affiliated to a political party or bloc were able to affiliate or associate themselves with such. Some of these deputies chose to informally associate themselves with multiple.

The new Duma ratified the Yeltsin Constitution. The new constituiton produced a strong Presidency, particularly over the Duma as it confirmed the ability for the president to dissolve parliament, and to pass laws by presidential decree.

Parliamentary groups

The use of the mixed system for the election of the Duma produced a large number of deputies which were unaffiliated with any electoral bloc. By joining other parliamentary groups or forming groups of independent deputies, they could significantly influence the balance of power in the Duma. Hence, the parliamentary groups in the first two-year term of the Duma showed lack of stability and its numbers may be given only with approximation.

Parliamentary groupLeaderSeats Liberal Democratic Party of RussiaVladimir Zhirinovsky53–64 Russia's ChoiceYegor Gaidar47–78Communist Party of the Russian FederationGennady Zyuganov45–47 Women of RussiaYekaterina Lakhova20–24 Agrarian Party of RussiaMikhail Lapshin50–55 YablokoGrigory Yavlinsky27–28 Party of Russian Unity and AccordSergey Shakhray12–34 Democratic Party of RussiaNikolay Travkin8–15 Liberal Democratic Union of 12 DecemberIrina Khakamada11–38 New Regional Politics – Duma-96Vladimir Medvedev30–67 RussiaIgor Shichanin34–38 StabilityAleksey Leushkin34–40 Russian Way (unregistered)Sergei Baburin11–14 Strong State (Derzhava) (unregistered)Viktor Kobelev4–5

See also Elections in Russia List of members of the 1st Russian State Duma Viktor Chernomyrdin's First Cabinet 1991 Russian presidential election 1996 Russian presidential election

Notes

References

Sources

External links Russian general elections