1995 Russian legislative election

1995 Russian legislative election

17 December 1995
All 450 seats in the State Duma 226 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	64.38% ( 9.57 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gennady Zyuganov Viktor Chernomyrdin Vladimir Zhirinovsky Party CPRF NDR LDPR Leader since 14 February 1993 12 May 1995 13 December 1989 Leader's seat Federal list Federal list Federal list Last election 42 seats, 11.55% New 64 seats, 21.35% Seats won 157 55 51 Seat change 115 New 13 Popular vote 15,432,963 7,009,291 7,737,431 Percentage 22.30% (PL) 10.13% (PL) 11.18% (PL) Swing 10.75% New 10.17%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Grigory Yavlinsky Mikhail Lapshin Yegor Gaidar Party Yabloko APR DVR–OD Leader since 16 October 1993 26 February 1993 26 August 1995 Leader's seat Federal list Federal list (lost) Federal list (lost) Last election 27 seats, 7.32% 38 seats, 7.44% 62 seats, 14.45% Seats won 45 20 9 Seat change 18 17 53 Popular vote 4,767,384 2,613,127 2,674,084 Percentage 6.89% (PL) 3.78% (PL) 3.86% (PL) Swing 0.43% 3.66% 10.59%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Nikolai Ryzhkov Yury Skokov Alevtina Fedulova Party Power to the People KRO Women of Russia Leader since 19 August 1995 27 January 1995 1 October 1993 Leader's seat Belgorod Federal list (lost) Federal list (lost) Last election New New 24 seats, 7.57% Seats won 9 5 3 Seat change New New 21 Popular vote 1,112,873 2,980,137 3,188,813 Percentage 1.62% (PL) 4.31% (PL) 4.61% (PL) Swing New New 2.96%
Winning party by region
Chairman of the State Duma before election Ivan Rybkin Ivan Rybkin Bloc Elected Chairman of the State Duma Gennadiy Seleznyov CPRF

Legislative election were held in Russia on 17 December 1995. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Federal Assembly.

Electoral system

The election law adopted for the 1995 election was similar to that adopted for the 1993 election, with some minor modifications. First, to secure a place on the proportional representation ballot, parties had to have registered with the Ministry of Justice no later than six months before the election, and the number of signatures they had to gather rose from 100,000 to 200,000. Second, invalid votes were now included in the calculation of the 5.0 percent threshold. Third, on the single-member district ballot, party endorsements of candidates were indicated.

Campaign

Out of the forty three parties and coalitions contesting the elections, only four cleared the 5% threshold to qualify for the proportional seats.

Pro-Government parties

Our Home – Russia had weightier resources and soon acquired the nickname of "party of power" for its reliance on elite political and economic office holders. It was also referred to as "Our Home Is Gazprom" for its close ties to Gazprom's substantial financial resources. Most of the cabinet ministers joined the bloc, and a number of business leaders and regional political elites affiliated with it. However, almost no other parties entered it, and many SMD candidates who had initially affiliated with the party soon left it. One of the early parties to enter the bloc, Sergei Shakhrai's Party of Russian Unity and Accord, also deserted it in August. The party program called for "stability and development, democracy and patriotism, confidence and order" as well as "pragmatism" and "a civilized market". Other proposals were contradictory as the party proposed, among other things, to encourage foreign investment while protecting Russian manufacturers, and to promote agricultural reform while regulating land ownership.

In the election, the Our Home Is Russia bloc took 10.1% of the vote, enough to form a faction in the State Duma but not enough to serve as a dominant or pivotal force in parliament or in the regions. At its peak, the party claimed the membership of around one third of Russia's governors. However, both the center and regional elites made only ephemeral commitments to Our Home is Russia.

Opposition parties

As a result of these elections, the Communists and their satellites, the Agrarians and other left-wing deputies, controlled a little less than the half of the seats. The populist LDPR occasionally sided with the left majority, but often supported the government. As in the previous Duma, the parliamentary groups of independent deputies had a significant influence on the balance of power in the parliament.

On January 17, 1996 a Communist, Gennady Seleznyov, was elected the Speaker of the Duma.

Results

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Communist Party	15,432,963	22.73	99	8,636,392	12.78	58	157	+115
	Liberal Democratic Party	7,737,431	11.40	50	3,801,971	5.63	1	51	–11
	Our Home – Russia	7,009,291	10.33	45	3,808,745	5.64	10	55	New
	Yabloko	4,767,384	7.02	31	2,209,945	3.27	14	45	+18
	Women of Russia	3,188,813	4.70	0	712,072	1.05	3	3	–21
	Communists and Working Russia for the Soviet Union	3,137,406	4.62	0	1,276,655	1.89	1	1	New
	Congress of Russian Communities	2,980,137	4.39	0	1,987,665	2.94	5	5	New
	Party of Workers' Self-Government	2,756,954	4.06	0	475,007	0.70	1	1	New
	Democratic Choice of Russia – United Democrats	2,674,084	3.94	0	1,819,330	2.69	9	9	–53
	Agrarian Party of Russia	2,613,127	3.85	0	4,066,214	6.02	20	20	–18
	Derzhava	1,781,233	2.62	0	420,860	0.62	0	0	New
	Forward, Russia!	1,343,428	1.98	0	1,054,577	1.56	3	3	New
	Power to the People	1,112,873	1.64	0	1,345,905	1.99	9	9	New
	Pamfilova–Gurov–Lysenko	1,106,812	1.63	0	476,721	0.71	2	2	New
	Trade Unions and Industrialists – Union of Labour	1,076,072	1.59	0	584,063	0.86	1	1	New
	Environmental Party of Russia "Kedr"	962,195	1.42	0	304,896	0.45	0	0	0
	Ivan Rybkin Bloc	769,259	1.13	0	1,073,580	1.59	3	3	New
	Stanislav Govorukhin Bloc	688,496	1.01	0	483,281	0.72	1	1	New
	My Fatherland	496,276	0.73	0	351,911	0.52	1	1	New
	Common Cause	472,615	0.70	0	148,584	0.22	1	1	New
	Beer Lovers Party	428,727	0.63	0	57,946	0.09	0	0	New
	All Russian Muslim Public Movement "Nur"	393,513	0.58	0	49,689	0.07	0	0	New
	Transformation of the Fatherland	339,654	0.50	0	227,822	0.34	1	1	New
	National Republican Party	331,700	0.49	0				0	New
	Block of Djuna	323,232	0.48	0				0	New
	Party of Russian Unity and Accord	245,977	0.36	0	285,654	0.42	1	1	–22
	Russian Lawyers' Association	242,966	0.36	0	96,046	0.14	0	0	New
	For the Motherland!	194,254	0.29	0	213,723	0.32	0	0	New
	Christian-Democratic Union – Christians of Russia	191,446	0.28	0	102,335	0.15	0	0	New
	38 Words Electoral Bloc	145,704	0.21	0				0	New
	People's Union	130,728	0.19	0	70,685	0.10	0	0	New
	Tikhonov–Tupolev–Tikhonov Bloc	102,039	0.15	0	65,458	0.10	0	0	New
	Russian Union of Workers of ZhKKh	97,274	0.14	0	115,386	0.17	0	0	New
	Social Democrats	88,642	0.13	0	233,269	0.35	0	0	New
	Party of Economic Freedom	88,416	0.13	0	199,150	0.29	1	1	New
	Russian All-People's Movement	86,422	0.13	0	224,779	0.33	0	0	New
	Bloc of Independents	83,742	0.12	0	375,287	0.56	1	1	New
	Federal Democratic Movement	82,948	0.12	0	86,519	0.13	0	0	New
	Sociopolitical Movement "Stable Russia"	81,285	0.12	0	159,226	0.24	0	0	New
	Duma-96	55,897	0.08	0	108,672	0.16	0	0	New
	Frontier Generation	44,202	0.07	0	13,429	0.02	0	0	New
	Bloc '89	40,840	0.06	0	175,459	0.26	1	1	New
	Interethnic Union	39,592	0.06	0	169,746	0.25	0	0	New
	All-Russian Sociopolitical Movement of Transport Workers				162,263	0.24	0	0	New
	Democratic Russia and Free Trade-Unions				158,040	0.23	0	0	New
	Sociopolitical Movement "Education is Russia's Future"				129,399	0.19	0	0	New
	Union of Patriots				118,441	0.18	0	0	New
	Union of Russian Moslems				65,688	0.10	0	0	New
	Party "Union of Communists"				62,181	0.09	0	0	New
	Party of Supporters of Tax Reduction				61,519	0.09	0	0	New
	Party "Democratic Alternative"				61,252	0.09	0	0	New
	Conservative Party				57,351	0.08	0	0	New
	Case of Peter the First				51,928	0.08	0	0	New
	Russian Party				43,221	0.06	0	0	New
	Union of Patriotic Orthodox Organisations				42,269	0.06	0	0	New
	Party "Economic Alternative"				37,622	0.06	0	0	New
	We are Serving for Russia!				35,535	0.05	0	0	New
	League of Independent Scientists				28,666	0.04	0	0	New
	National-Republican Party of Russia				27,197	0.04	0	0	New
	Social Alliance "Revival"				27,032	0.04	0	0	New
	Russian Union of Local Self-Government				21,427	0.03	0	0	New
	Our Future				18,488	0.03	0	0	New
	Faith, Labour, Conscience				14,639	0.02	0	0	New
	Russian Party of Car Owners				8,088	0.01	0	0	New
	People's Salvation Front				1,881	0.00	0	0	New
	Workers' Collectives and Greens for the Union of Co-Owners				1,442	0.00	0	0	New
	European Liberal Democratic Party				154	0.00	0	0	New
	Independents				21,620,835	31.99	77	77	–58
Against all		1,918,151	2.83	–	6,660,495	9.85	–	–	–
Total		67,884,200	100.00	225	67,585,707	100.00	225	450	0
Valid votes		67,884,200	98.09		67,585,707	97.71
Invalid/blank votes		1,320,619	1.91		1,582,227	2.29
Total votes		69,204,819	100.00		69,167,934	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		107,496,856	64.38		107,496,856	64.34
Source: University of Essex, Nohlen & Stöver

Parliamentary groups

Parliamentary group		Leader	Seats (Jan.'96)[1]
Communist Party of the Russian Federation		Gennady Zyuganov	139
Our Home - Russia		Sergei Belyaev	65
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia		Vladimir Zhirinovsky	49
Yabloko		Grigory Yavlinsky	45
"Regions of Russia (Independent Deputies)"		Oleg Morozov	44
People's Power		Nikolai Ryzhkov	41
Agrarian Group		Nikolay Kharitonov	35
Democratic Choice of Russia (unregistered)		Sergey Yushenkov	6
Independents			19
Total			450