1995 Russian legislative election

1995 Russian State Duma election

17 December 1995
Turnout	64.76% 9.95 pp
Party Leader % Seats ± Communist Party 22.30% 157 LDPR 11.18% 51 Our Home – Russia 10.13% 55 Yabloko 6.89% 45 Women of Russia 4.61% 3 RCWP–TR 4.53% 1 Congress of Russian Communities 4.31% 5 Party of Workers' Self-Government 3.98% 1 Democratic Choice of Russia – United Democrats 3.86% 9 Agrarian Party of Russia 3.78% 20 Forward, Russia! 1.94% 3 Power to the People (Russia) 1.61% 9 Republican Party of Russia 1.60% 2 Trade Unions and Industrialists – Union of Labour 1.55% 1 Ivan Rybkin Bloc 1.11% 3
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
File:1995 Russian legislative election map.svg Winning party by region
Chairman of the State Duma before Chairman of the State Duma after Ivan Rybkin Ivan Rybkin Ivan Rybkin Bloc Gennadiy Seleznyov Communist Party Gennadiy Seleznyov

Election results

Legislative election were held in Russia on 17 December 1995. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Federal Assembly.

Rules

The election law adopted for the 1995 election was similar to that adopted for the 1993 election, with some minor modifications. First, to secure a place on the proportional representation ballot, parties had to have registered with the Ministry of Justice no later than six months before the election, and the number of signatures they had to gather rose from 100,000 to 200,000. Second, invalid votes were now included in the calculation of the 5.0 percent threshold. Third, on the single-member district ballot, party endorsements of candidates were indicated.

Campaign

Out of the forty three parties and coalitions contesting the elections, only four cleared the 5% threshold to qualify for the proportional seats.

Pro-Government parties

Our Home – Russia had weightier resources and soon acquired the nickname of "party of power" for its reliance on elite political and economic office holders. It was also referred to as "Our Home Is Gazprom" for its close ties to Gazprom's substantial financial resources. Most of the cabinet ministers joined the bloc, and a number of business leaders and regional political elites affiliated with it. However, almost no other parties entered it, and many SMD candidates who had initially affiliated with the party soon left it. One of the early parties to enter the bloc, Sergei Shakhrai's Party of Russian Unity and Accord, also deserted it in August. The party program called for "stability and development, democracy and patriotism, confidence and order" as well as "pragmatism" and "a civilized market". Other proposals were contradictory as the party proposed, among other things, to encourage foreign investment while protecting Russian manufacturers, and to promote agricultural reform while regulating land ownership.

In the election, the Our Home Is Russia bloc took 10.1% of the vote, enough to form a faction in the State Duma but not enough to serve as a dominant or pivotal force in parliament or in the regions. At its peak, the party claimed the membership of around one third of Russia's governors. However, both the center and regional elites made only ephemeral commitments to Our Home is Russia.

Opposition parties

As a result of these elections, the Communists and their satellites, the Agrarians and other left-wing deputies, controlled a little less than the half of the seats. The populist LDPR occasionally sided with the left majority, but often supported the government. As in the previous Duma, the parliamentary groups of independent deputies had a significant influence on the balance of power in the parliament.

On January 17, 1996 a Communist, Gennady Seleznyov, was elected the Speaker of the Duma.

Results

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Party		PR			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Communist Party of the Russian Federation	15,432,963	22.30	99	8,636,392	12.78	58	157	+92
	Liberal Democratic Party of Russia	7,737,431	11.18	50	3,801,971	5.63	1	51	–19
	Our Home – Russia	7,009,291	10.13	45	3,808,745	5.64	10	55	New
	Yabloko	4,767,384	6.89	31	2,209,945	3.27	14	45	+12
	Women of Russia	3,188,813	4.61	0	712,072	1.05	3	3	–22
	Communists and Working Russia - for the Soviet Union	3,137,406	4.53	0	1,276,655	1.89	1	1	New
	Congress of Russian Communities	2,980,137	4.31	0	1,987,665	2.94	5	5	New
	Party of Workers' Self-Government	2,756,954	3.98	0	475,007	0.7	1	1	New
	Democratic Choice of Russia – United Democrats	2,674,084	3.86	0	1,819,330	2.69	9	9	–85
	Agrarian Party of Russia	2,613,127	3.78	0	4,066,214	6.02	20	20	–27
	Derzhava	1,781,233	2.57	0	420,860	0.62	0	0	New
	Forward, Russia!	1,343,428	1.94	0	1,054,577	1.56	3	3	New
	Power to the People	1,112,873	1.61	0	1,345,905	1.99	9	9	New
	Pamfilova–Gurov–Lysenko	1,106,812	1.6	0	476,721	0.71	2	2	New
	Trade Unions and Industrialists – Union of Labour	1,076,072	1.55	0	584,063	0.86	1	1	New
	Environmental Party of Russia "Kedr"	962,195	1.39	0	304,896	0.45	0	0	0
	Ivan Rybkin Bloc	769,259	1.11	0	1,073,580	1.59	3	3	New
	Stanislav Govorukhin Bloc	688,496	0.99	0	483281	0.72	1	1	New
	My Fatherland	496,276	0.72	0	351,911	0.52	1	1	New
	Common Cause	472,615	0.68	0	–	–	1	1	New
	Beer Lovers Party	428,727	0.62	0	57,946	0.09	0	0	–
	All Russian Muslim Public Movement "Nur"	393,513	0.57	0	49689	0.07	0	0	–
	Transformation of the Fatherland	339,654	0.49	0	227,822	0.34	1	1	New
	National Republican Party of Russia	331,700	0.48	0	–	–	–	0	–
	Block of Djuna	323,232	0.47	0	–	–	–	0	–
	Party of Russian Unity and Accord	245,977	0.36	0	285,654	0.42	1	1	–26
	Russian Lawyers' Association	242,966	0.35	0	96,046	0.14	0	0	–
	For the Motherland!	194,254	0.28	0	213,723	0.32	0	0	–
	Christian-Democratic Union - Christians of Russia	191,446	0.28	0	–	–	–	0	–
	Cause of Peter the First	145,704	0.21	0	–	–	–	0	–
	People's Union	130,728	0.19	0	70,685	0.1	0	0	–
	"Tikhonov-Tupolev-Tikhonov" Bloc	102,039	0.15	0	65,458	0.1	0	0	–
	Russian Union of Workers of ZhKKh	97,274	0.14	0	115,386	0.17	0	0	–
	Social Democrats	88,642	0.13	0	233,269	0.35	0	0	–
	Party of Economic Freedom	88,416	0.13	0	199,150	0.29	1	1	New
	Russian All-People's Movement	86,422	0.12	0	224,779	0.33	0	0	–
	Bloc of Independents	83,742	0.12	0	375,287	0.56	1	1	New
	Federal Democratic Movement	82,948	0.12	0	86,519	0.13	0	0	–
	Sociopolitical Movement "Stable Russia"	81,285	0.12	0	159,226	0.24	0	0	–
	Duma-96	55,897	0.08	0	108,672	0.16	0	0	–
	Frontier Generation	44,202	0.06	0	13,429	0.02	0	0	–
	Bloc '89	40,840	0.06	0	175,459	0.26	1	1	New
	Interethnic Union	39,592	0.06	0	169,746	0.25	0	0	–
	Other parties	–	–	–	1,486,642	2.15	0	0	–
	Independents	–	–	–	21,620,835	31.99	77	77	–53
	Against all	1,918,151	2.77	–	6,660,495	9.85	–	–	–
Invalid/blank votes		1,320,619	–	–	1,582,227	–	–	–	–
Total		69,204,819	100	225	69,167,934	100	225	450	0
Registered voters/turnout		107,496,856	64.4	–	107,496,856	64.3	–	–	–
Source: University of Essex, Nohlen & Stöver

Parliamentary Groups

Parliamentary group		Leader	Seats (Jan.'96)[1]
Communist Party of the Russian Federation		Gennady Zyuganov	139
Our Home - Russia		Sergei Belyaev	65
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia		Vladimir Zhirinovsky	49
Yabloko		Grigory Yavlinsky	45
"Regions of Russia (Independent Deputies)"		Oleg Morozov	44
People's Power		Nikolai Ryzhkov	41
Agrarian Group		Nikolay Kharitonov	35
Democratic Choice of Russia (unregistered)		Sergey Yushenkov	6
Independents			19
Total			450