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
