Legislative elections were held in Russia on 2 December 2007. At stake were the 450 seats in the 5th State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly (the legislature). Eleven parties were included in the ballot, including Russia's largest party, United Russia, which was supported by President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Official results showed that United Russia won 64.3% of the votes, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation 11.6%, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 8.1%, and A Just Russia won 7.7%, and none of the other parties won enough votes to gain any seats.
Although 400 foreign election monitors were present at the polling stations, the elections received mixed criticism internationally, largely from Western countries, and by some independent media and some opposition parties domestically. The observers stated that the elections were not rigged but that media coverage was heavily favoured towards United Russia. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated that the elections were "not fair", while foreign governments and the European Union called on Russia to look for possible violations. The election commission responded saying that the allegations would be examined. The Kremlin insisted that the vote was fair and said it demonstrated Russia's political stability.
Electoral system The 2007 election were assigned exclusively from party-list proportional representation under a law adopted in 2005 on the initiative of President Vladimir Putin. He claimed it would strengthen the party system by reducing the number of parties in the Duma. In the previous elections half of the seats were filled using proportional representation and another half using the first-past-the-post system. It was also the first parliamentary election since 1993 that lacks the "against all" option on the ballot, and the first in which there was no provision for the minimum number of voters that must be achieved for the elections to be considered valid.
That year, the 225 single-member districts were abolished. In the election of 2003, 100 of these seats were won by independents or minor party candidates. All seats were awarded by proportional representation. The threshold for eligibility to win seats was raised from 5.0 to 7.0 percent. In 2003 four parties each exceeded 7.0 percent of the list vote and collectively won 70.7 percent of the total Duma vote.
Only officially registered parties were eligible to compete, and registered parties could not form a bloc in order to improve their chances of clearing the 7.0 percent threshold, with the provision that parties in the Duma had to represent at least 60% of the participating citizens, and that there must be at least two parties in the Duma. There were eleven parties eligible to take part in the Duma election. Duma seats were allocated to individuals on the lists of successful parties in accordance with their ranking there, and divided among each regional group of candidates for the party in proportion to the votes received by that party in each region (Article 83: Methodology of Proportional Distribution of Deputy Seats). Any members who resign from their party automatically forfeit their seats.
Several weeks ahead of the election, party leaders take part in moderated debates. Debates are televised on several state channels. Each candidate were given a chance to present his party's agenda, and to challenge opponents with questions. (United Russia refused to participate in the debates to receive more time for allowed promotion clips than other parties.)
In the Republic of Chechnya, a constitutional referendum was held on the same date.
Contesting parties
Fifteen parties were eligible to participate in the elections. On 13 September 2007, Patriots of Russia and Party of Russia's Rebirth created a coalition, leaving only 14 parties to participate. All 14 parties have presented their lists of candidates to the Central Election commission. However, the Electoral Commission decided the Russian Ecological Party "The Greens" would not be able to stand, due to an alleged large number of faked signatures (17%, more than the allowed 5%) in their supporters' lists. Nationalist People's Union decided to endorse the Communist Party.На региональных и местных выборах
Included in final ballots were: PartyLead candidatesPolitical positionIdeology 1 Agrarian Party of Russia APR Vladimir Plotnikov • Nina Brusnikova • Vasily Shandybin Centre to centre-left Agrarianism / Centrism 2 Civilian Power GS Mikhail Barshchevsky • Alexander Ryavkin • Viktor Pokhmelkin Centre to centre-right Liberalism 3 Democratic Party of Russia DPR Andrey Bogdanov • Vyacheslav Smirnov • Oleg Gimazov Centre-right Liberalism / Pro-Europeanism 4 Communist Party of the Russian Federation CPRF Gennady Zyuganov • Zhores Alferov • Nikolay Kharitonov Left-wing Socialism / Left-wing conservatism 5 Union of Right Forces SPS Nikita Belykh • Boris Nemtsov • Marietta Chudakova Centre-right Conservative liberalism / Economic liberalism 6 Party of Social Justice PSS Alexey Podberezkin • Maksim Leskov • Valery Vorotnikov Center-left Democratic socialism 7 Liberal Democratic Party of Russia LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky • Andrey Lugovoy • Igor Lebedev Right-wing Right-wing populism / Unitarism / Anti-communism 8 A Just Russia: Motherland / Pensioners / Life SR Sergey Mironov • Svetlana Goryacheva Centre-left Social democracy / Left-wing populism 9 Patriots of Russia PoR Gennady Semigin • Gennadiy Seleznyov • Sergey Makhovikov Left-wing Democratic socialism / Left-wing nationalism 10 United Russia UR Vladimir Putin Centre-right Statism / Social conservatism 11 Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" Yabloko Grigory Yavlinsky • Sergey Kovalyov • Sergey Ivanenko Centre to centre-left Social liberalism / Social democracy
A number of parties contested the election. The biggest and most popular party in Russia is United Russia, which supports the policies of Vladimir Putin. On 1 October 2007, Putin announced he would run first place on the United Russia list and that he might consider becoming Prime Minister after the elections. Other pro-Kremlin parties crossing the seven percent threshold include the new A Just Russia party, led by the Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia Sergey Mironov, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (whose candidates included Andrey Lugovoy, wanted in the UK for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko and elected ), which has also been favourable towards President Putin's policies.
The largest opposition party is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which saw its share of the vote cut in half between 1999 and 2003. It came in second with over 11% of the vote, however. The liberal democratic opposition was represented by the free-market Union of Right Forces, the more socially minded Yabloko, and Civilian Power representing right liberal ideology, none of which won any seats.
Conduct The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) planned to send a large team of election monitors to Russia for the election, but scuttled the plans after accusing Moscow of imposing curbs and delaying monitors' visas (Russian officials denied the claim). Consequently, only 400 foreign monitors from international organisations (330 of them from OSCE) were on hand to observe at some of Russia's 95,000 polling stations.
Observers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) inspected 30 precinct election commissions in the electoral district of the city of Moscow. The statement issued by the mission states the election of deputies of the State Duma "in the election district observed by the Mission was legitimate, free and open, and basically conformed to the requirements of the national legislation of the Russian Federation and its international obligations."
Campaign The campaign season was permitted by law to begin on 3 November and end on 30 November. All the parties were provided with some free television and print access, and on-air candidate debates at times appeared informative.
United Russia
On 1 October 2007 President Putin announced at the convention of the United Russia party that he would "accept" its invitation to head its list of candidates, although he declined to join the party. In his acceptance speech, Putin stated that a suggestion by a previous speaker that he become the prime minister after his second term as president ends "is entirely realistic, but it is too soon to talk about this at the moment because at least two conditions would first need to be met. United Russia declined to participate in any broadcast political debates, but on 1 October approved the program that pledged to continue Putin's policy course." The election programme was entitled "Putin's Plan: a worthy future for a great country".State Duma elections 2011 and the marginal role of Russian parties. Part 2United Russia has termed the corpus of President Putin's annual speeches to the Federal Assembly the "Putin Plan" for Russia's development. The United Russia stressed Russian nationalism and an anti-Western image.
Opinion polls Polling firmFieldwork dateUnitedRussiaCPRFLDPR Rodina RPP RPZhAPRSPSYablokoOtherUnsureAgainstallWouldn'tvoteA Just RussiaElection result7 Dec 200337.5612.6111.459.023.091.883.633.974.304.70 FOM13–14 Dec 200334810721233210611FOM23–28 Dec 20033081062023301381510–11 Jan 20042989511223016616 14 Mar 2004 2004 Russian presidential election 1 Jul 2004 Group of CPRF members led by Gennady Semigin attempts to remove its chairman Zyuganov.FOM10–11 Jul 2004261153122119922 Dec 2004 State Duma switches to full party-list proportional representation starting with 2007 election. VCIOM 11–12 Dec 2004317772223LevadaDec 2004241077321311722FOM15–16 Jan 200522963112125822 VCIOM 29–30 Jan 20053110774213Levada18–21 Mar 20052010520.40.7225.422626FOM9–10 Jul 2005218531111124824FOM14–15 Jan 2006279632112124619 Levada 10–14 Mar 2006 23 9 8 4 1 1 1 1 2 2 28 5 14 FOM 15–16 Jul 2006 26 10 5 2 2 0 1 1 1 1 27 23 28 Oct 2006 Rodina, Party of Pensioners and Party of Life merge to form A Just Russia. FOM 25–26 Nov 2006 28 7 4 4 1 1 1 1 30 22 FOM 2–3 Dec 2006 27 6 5 3 1 1 1 1 31 22FOM13–14 Jan 200727653111129 25FOM24–25 Feb 200730664111128 23 11 Mar 2007 Legislative elections in 14 regions: United Russia holds majority in 13, A Just Russia wins 1.FOM26–27 May 200732644111126 23VCIOM25–26 Aug 200747.76.75.35.00.60.80.81.815.715.6FOM25–26 Aug 200732654111125 24VCIOM15–16 Sep 2007487461111161522–23 Sep 20074775611111615FOM22–23 Sep 200739764111121 17VCIOM29–30 Sep 20074875411101715 1 Oct 2007 Vladimir Putin declared No. 1 candidate on United Russia's list.VCIOM6–7 Oct 2007546531110151313–14 Oct 20075664311101413FOM20–21 Oct 200743765111020 15VCIOM27–28 Oct 200753.67.33.93.81.61.11.21.412.513.7FOM10–11 Nov 200742764111121 15VCIOM17–18 Nov 200755.65.84.84.91.30.81.11.513.610.8FOM24–25 Nov 200750664211117 13
Seat predictions +Polling firmDateURCPRFLDPRSRVCIOM1 Jun 2007253874169VCIOM25–26 Aug 2007259824168257814864VCIOM22–23 Sep 2007237894876VCIOM27–28 Oct 2007279824049VCIOM17–18 Nov 2007313624035Election result2 Dec 2007315574038
Exit polls +Polling firmURCPRFLDPRSRAPRYablokoGSSPSPRPSSDPR VCIOM 61 11.5 8.8 8.4 2.3 2.8 1 1.6 1.6 0.7 0.2 FOM 62.3 11.8 8.4 8.3 2.7 2.2 0.9 1.3 0.8 0.3 0.2Election result 65.0 11.7 8.2 7.8 2.3 1.6 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.2 0.1
Results
As of 02:00, 3 December Moscow Time about 47.14% votes had been counted. Four parties passed the 7% threshold: United Russia 63.2%, Communist Party of the Russian Federation 11.5%, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia 9.1%, and A Just Russia 7.8%. This was consistent with exit polls conducted by VTsIOM, which predicted 61%, 11.5%, 8.8%, 8.4% respectively. Exit polls conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation showed similar results: 62.3%, 11.8%, 8.4%, 8.3%.