General election in Russia 1999
The 1999 parliamentary elections in Russia took place on December 19, 1999. 450 seats were allocated in the Duma , half each via party lists and half by direct election . 26 electoral associations and a large number of direct candidates were allowed to vote.
background
The election was marked by a conflict between two camps within the Russian leadership.
On one side stood the popular Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov , who were supported by a number of influential regional politicians. These forces had come together in the alliance Fatherland - All Russia .
On the other side stood the environment of President Boris Yeltsin , who saw their position of power and their financial interests endangered if Fatherland - All Russia were elected . The reason for this was, for example, the fact that Yevgeny Primakov, during his time as Prime Minister, had initiated a public prosecutor's investigation into the “gray eminence of the Kremlin”, Boris Berezovsky , at the beginning of 1999 . In addition, both Primakov and Luzhkov were considered promising candidates in the upcoming presidential elections. In order to assert the interests of those around the president, the political movement Unity ( Jedinstwo ) was founded, which to some extent succeeded the old party, Our House Russia , which was loyal to the president . High- ranking officials from the presidential administration such as Vladislav Surkov and Igor Shabdurasulov were involved in building the party . An important point in the election campaign strategy of Einheit was the declared support of the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin , who was very popular.
During the election campaign, Einheit received massive support from the media of the pro-government oligarchs and the state, including the TV stations ORT and RTR , Radio Mayak and the newspapers Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Kommersant . Fatherland - All of Russia , on the other hand, was supported by the Media-Most concern of media magnate Vladimir Gussinski (to which the NTW broadcaster belonged) and by the newspapers Moskovsky Komsomolets and Sevodnja .
Other parties that had the hope of entering the Duma were the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , which had become the strongest force in the 1995 election, the left-liberal movement Yabloko , the economically liberal Union of Right Forces and the right-wing populist bloc Zhirinovsky .
Election result
The strongest party was the KPRF. Unity received almost as many seats on the list, but only very few direct mandates. The electoral bloc Fatherland - All Russia was clearly behind Unity , but was able to compensate for this with direct mandates. The newly founded Union of Right Forces achieved a surprising 8.5 percent of the vote. Grigori Jawlinski's Yabloko party achieved the worst election result since 1993 with 5.9 percent of the vote.
Final result of the election to the Russian Duma on December 19, 1999 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parties | Party list | Direct mandates | Overall mandates | |||
in percent | Mandates | Mandates | in percent | Mandates | in percent | |
KPRF | 24.29 | 67 | 46 | 21.3 | 113 | 25.6 |
unit | 23.32 | 64 | 9 | 4.2 | 73 | 16.6 |
Fatherland - all of Russia | 13.33 | 37 | 31 | 14.4 | 68 | 15.4 |
Union of Right Forces | 8.52 | 24 | 5 | 2.3 | 29 | 6.6 |
Zhirinovsky Block | 5.98 | 17th | - | - | 17th | 3.9 |
Yabloko | 5.93 | 16 | 4th | 1.9 | 20th | 4.5 |
Other | 15.33 | - | 16 | 7.4 | 16 | 3.6 |
Against all | 3.3 | - | - | - | - | - |
Independent | - | - | 105 | 48.6 | 105 | 23.8 |
total | 100.0 | 225 | 216 | 100.0 | 441 | 100.0 |
Source: G. Mangott, On the Democratization of Russia , Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2002 |
See also
swell
Gerhard Mangott , On the Democratization of Russia , Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2002