Electoral+Process+Russia+Period+3

Political Parties - United Russia : Formed as Unity Party in 1999, then merged with All-Russia to form United Russia. Founded by Boris Gryzlov, but Vladimir Putin headed the party list on the ballot in 2007. Most dominant party in Russia. Centrist party ("party of power"), which means it attracts elite people, not the lower classes. This is why it is one of the most dominant parties because its followers have power to keep it established. - A Just Russia : Formed in 2006 by merging three political parties: Life, Rodina, and the Russian Party of Pensioners. Founded by Sergey Mironov. Centrist party ("party of power"), so just like United Russia, attracts elites and people of power as its supporters, not lower class citizens. - Communist Party of the Russian Federation : Founded by Gennady Zyuganov. By far the strongest parliamentary party after 1995 elections. Most dominant party until 1999 when United Russia became more popular. Most support from older Russians and economically disadvantaged and rural residents. Socialist views. - Liberal Democratic Party of Russia : Founded by Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Recieved most support in 1993 election and won almost 23 percent, which suprised many people. Not really liberal or conservative, more nationalist. Those who have nationalist and anti-western views support this party. - Our Home is Russia: Founded by former prime minister, Viktor Chernomydin in 1992. Centrist party with same supporters as United Russia and A Just Russia, but not as many supporters and not as popular. They currently have no seats in the Duma. - Union of Rightist Forces : Founded by Nikita Belykh. Liberal/Reform party. Most support from young, more educated, urban dwellers, and well-off. They currently have no seats in the Duma. - Yabloko : Opposition liberal/reform party. Founded by Grigory Yavlinsky. Most support from young, more educated, urban dwellers, and well-off. They currently have no seats in the Duma.

Who Can Vote? -Total voter turnout has generally remained between 60% and 70%. -Since the fall of the USSR there have been five presidential elections. The communist party in the first election only had 20% voter turnout. The next election it rose to 30%, but after the next three elections it had dipped below 10% support. -In the 2008 presidential election 71.25% voted for Dmitry Medvedev, 17.96% voted for Zyuganov, 9.48% voted for Zhirinovsky, and 1.31% voted for Bogdanov. -Russia has a fairly high voter turnout but most citizens who vote are ethinically Russian. Minorities usually do not participate in the voting because there are not often candidates to represent them.

Elections -Presidential elections used to occur every four years. After the next election, though, they will occur every six years due to a change that Putin and Medvedev made to the constitution. -Duma elections occur every four years. -Federation Council member serve two year terms and are appointed by regional heads and legislatures. -Elections are free and fair in the sense that most people are able to run and anyone can vote. However, Putin has recently made extreme changes to the election proccess in order to assure that he will have support from the Duma. For example, before members of the Duma were elected half by proportional representation with a 5% threshold and half by single-member districts. Putin recently changed it so that all members must be elected through proportional representation with a 7% threshold in order to ensure that all of the small parties with about 4% support will definately not make it into the Duma. Also, Putin has accused many oligarchs of crimes and they have been sent to jail in order to prevent them from being able to run for election. Because of this the elections are not really free and fair. -All of the offices that are elected through vote, such as the President and Duma members are elected through direct votes. -Winners of the Presidential election are decided through a majority vote. The members of the Duma are selected as winners if they receive at least 5% of the votes and then the numbers of seats won is determined to the proportion of the votes that they won. -There are no electoral commissions to ensure fairness in Russia.

Noteworthy Elections -1996: First "democratic" election after the fall of the USSR. There were not any political parties established but it was the first muli-candidate election. Boris Yeltsin won the presidency. Yeltsin then resigned in 1999 and Putin took over until the next election. -2000: Vladimir Putin won the presidency. This was the first election with political parties, Putin was a member of United Russia. -2004: Vladimir Putin won the presidency with a 71% victory. -2008: Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor Dmitry Medvedev won the presidency with over a 70% victory.