Supreme Soviet elections were held in the Soviet Union on 4 March 1984.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1642 The elections were called on December 16, 1983. The elections were not free and fair, as there was no genuine competition and no meaningful choice for voters to make.
They were the last in the Soviet Union to be held before Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and demokratizatsiya resulted in partially free elections in 1989. They were also the last direct elections to the Supreme Soviet, as in 1989 deputies were elected to the Congress of People's Deputies, who then elected the Supreme Soviet.
Electoral system Candidates had to be nominated by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) or by a public organisation.Nohlen & Stöver, p1630 However, all public organisations were controlled by the party and were subservient to a 1931 law that required them to accept party rule. The CPSU itself remained the only legal one in the country.Nohlen & Stöver, p1654
Voters could vote against the CPSU candidate, but could only do so by using polling booths, whereas votes for the party could be cast simply by submitting a blank ballot. Turnout was required to be over 50% for the election to be valid.
Candidates CPSU candidates accounted for around three quarters of the nominees, whilst many of the others were members of Komsomol.Nohlen & Stöver, p1631
Results With over 184 million Soviet citizens voting in the election, over 99% of the votes went to a deputy to the Supreme Soviet, with over 100,000 votes against Party candidates, the lowest for any election in the Soviet Union.Party, State, and Citizen in the Soviet Union: A Collection of Documents, edited by Mervyn Matthews, London: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989, p. 5-6, 16-18.
Soviet of the Union
Soviet of Nationalities
References