Politics of Russia - Political Parties and Elections

Political Parties and Elections

For other political parties see Political parties in Russia. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Russia.

e • d Summary of the 4 March 2012 Russian presidential election results

Candidates	Nominating parties	Votes	%
Vladimir Putin	United Russia	45,513,001	63.64
Gennady Zyuganov	Communist Party	12,288,624	17.18
Mikhail Prokhorov	Independent	5,680,558	7.94
Vladimir Zhirinovsky	Liberal Democratic Party	4,448,959	6.22
Sergey Mironov	A Just Russia	2,755,642	3.85
Valid votes		70,686,784	98.84
Invalid votes		833,191	1.16
Total votes		71,519,975	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		109,610,812	65.25
Source: Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation

e • d Summary of the 4 December 2011 State Duma election results

Parties and alliances	Seat composition			Popular vote	%	± pp swing
	Seats	±	%
United Russia	238	77	52.88%	32,379,135	49.32%	14.98%
Communist Party	92	35	20.46%	12,599,507	19.19%	7.62%
A Just Russia	64	26	14.21%	8,695,522	13.24%	5.50%
Liberal Democratic Party	56	16	12.45%	7,664,570	11.67%	3.53%
Yabloko	0	0	0%	2,252,403	3.43%	1.84%
Patriots of Russia	0	0	0%	639,119	0.97%	0.08%
Right Cause	0	0	0%	392,806	0.60%	new party
Total	450	0	100%	64,623,062	100%
Valid ballot papers				64,623,062	98.43%
Invalid ballot papers				1,033,464	1.57%
Eligible voters				109,237,780	Turnout: 60.10%

Formerly seats in Russia the Duma were elected half by proportional representation ( with at least 5% of the vote to qualify for seats) and half by single member districts. However, President Putin passed a law that all seats are to be elected by proportional representation ( with at least 7% of the vote to qualify for seats) to take effect in the December 2007 elections. By doing this Putin has eliminated independents and made it more difficult for small parties to be elected to the Duma.