Russian presidential elections


Russian presidential elections determine who will serve as the President of Russia for the next six years.
Since the establishment of the position of the President of Russia in 1991, the presidential elections have taken place seven times: in 1991, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2018. The next presidential election is scheduled for March 2024.

Electoral legislation

Russian presidential elections are governed by the Russian Constitution, the Federal law on basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in referendums of citizens of the Russian Federation and the Federal law on Presidential elections of the Russian Federation. The provisions of the electoral legislation were constantly evolving, but the foundations of the electoral system remained unchanged.
Laws on elections of the President of Russia were adopted 4 times. From 1991 to 2003, before each election a new law was adopted: in 1991, in 1995, in 1999 and in 2003. Currently, there is a Federal law "on Presidential elections of the Russian Federation" #19-FZ from January 10, 2003, in the version from December 5, 2017.

Candidates

Eligibility

According to law, any citizen of Russia not younger than 35 years can be registered as the candidate for President of the Russian Federation, except persons:
From all candidates for President of Russia, only 3 were female candidates. These were Ella Pamfilova in 2000, Irina Hakamada in 2004 and Ksenia Sobchak in 2018. In addition, there were other women who ran for president, but for one reason or another were not registered.
No.YearPictureNamePartyVotes
12004Irina KhakamadaIndependent2,672,189
22018Ksenia SobchakCivic Initiative1,226,145
32000Ella PamfilovaFor Civic Dignity758,966

Perennial candidates

From all candidates, eight candidates participated in the elections more than once. The record for participation in the elections is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who six times participated in the elections, from the first election in 1991 to 2018. Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Putin were candidates four times each. Aman Tuleyev and Grigory Yavlinsky — three times, while in 1996 Tuleyev withdrew his candidacy a few days before the election, and Yavlinsky also tried to run in 2012, but was rejected. Boris Yeltsin and Sergey Mironov — twice.

Procedure

Nomination of candidates

Candidates can be nominated by a political party or run as independents.
Political parties represented in the State Duma and/or in legislative bodies of state power in at least one-third of the constituent entities may nominate their candidate without collecting signatures.
A candidate from a political party with no parliamentary representation must gather 100,000 signatures, down from 2 million before amendments to the law in 2012.
An independent candidate must gather 300,000 signatures.

Popular vote

The elections are held on the second Sunday of the month when the previous elections were held. If this day coincides with a day preceding a holiday day, or this Sunday falls on the week including a public holiday or Sunday is duly announced a work day, elections are called for the next Sunday.
The president is elected by direct popular vote in a two-round majoritarian contest: if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes advance to a run-off. The second round is held exactly three weeks after the first. The second round shall appoint with the written consent of the candidate to participate in the second round. If, prior to the second round, one of the registered candidates to be voted on has withdrawn his candidacy or has left it for other reasons, his / her place shall, by the decision of the Central Election Commission, be transferred to the next registered candidate by the number of votes obtained. A new candidate shall be put to the vote if there is a written Declaration of consent to participate in the second round of elections. Such application must be submitted to them no later than the second day after the departure of the candidate who initially participated in the second round. In this case, the voting shall be held on the first Sunday after 14 days from the date of application. At the end of the second round, the candidate with a simple majority of votes is considered elected. The second round can be held and one candidate, if after the departure of the remaining candidates will be only one. At the same time, the candidate is considered elected if he has received at least 50 percent of the votes.

Election calendar

The typical periods of the presidential election process are as follows, with the dates corresponding to the 2018 election:
In December 2011 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed the Central Election Commission and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications to ensure the surveillance procedures of voting and counting of votes in the presidential elections. According to the technical task set by the CEC, 91,400 election stations were covered by the video monitoring system. Two cameras were installed on each section. One passed the General plan, the second — directly to a ballot box. A total of 182,800 cameras were installed. Public access to election observation was carried out on a special web site. To view the videos of voting and counting votes, users must select the election stations from which they want to receive broadcasts on the day of voting.
The video surveillance system is used in the 2018 election. So cameras are installed on 80% of election stations. In addition, the chambers were installed for the first time in the territorial election commissions, which carry out the counting of votes at the level of cities and districts.

List of Russian presidential elections