2003 Russian legislative election

thumb|400px|Distribution of the constituency seats by federal subject.

Legislative elections were held in Russia on 7December 2003. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Federal Assembly.

As expected, the pro-Vladimir Putin United Russia party received the most votes (38%) and won the most seats, gaining a plurality in the Duma. The Communist Party remained the second largest, though much reduced in strength. The Liberal Democratic Party improved its position by 19 seats, while the liberal Yabloko and the liberal-conservative Union of Right Forces lost most of their seats.

Political parties and blocs

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%"

!colspan=2|Electoral association or bloc

!Lead candidates

!Political position

!Ideology

| 1 || style="background:"|

| Conceptual Party "Unity" || KPE || Konstantin Petrov • Vladimir Gribov • Dmitry Poltoratsky

| Far-right || Conspiracy theory / Occultism

| 2 || style="background:"|

| Union of Right Forces || SPS || Boris Nemtsov • Irina Khakamada • Anatoly Chubais

| Centre-right to right-wing || Conservative liberalism / Neoliberalism / Atlanticism

| 3 || style="background:"|

| Russian Party of Pensioners and Party of Social Justice RPP, PSS || RPP–PSS || Vladimir Kishenin • Galiya Zelenchukova • Dmitry Senyukov

| Centre-left || Pensioners' interests / Social justice

| 4 || style="background:"|

| Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" || Yabloko || Grigory Yavlinsky • Vladimir Lukin • Igor Artemyev

| Centre || Social liberalism / Liberal democracy

| 5 || style="background:#408080"|

| || ZRS || Sergey Popov • Aleksey Kuimov • Igor Shatalov

| Right-wing || Conservatism / Christian nationalism

| 6 || style="background:#164C8C"|

| United Russian Party Rus' || ORP Rus' || Valery Burkov • Lidia Rusanova • Vladimir Medvedev

| Right-wing || Patriotism / Russian nationalism

| 7 || style="background:"|

| New Course — Automobile Russia Liberal Russia, RPRF, || NCAR || Viktor Pokhmelkin • Boris Fyodorov • Leonid Olshansky

| Centre-right || Liberalism / Drivers' interests

| 8 || style="background:#7B746F"|

| || NRPR || Eduard Baltin • Vladimir Kushnerenko • Vitaly Pavlov

| Right-wing || National conservatism / Patriotism

| 9 || style="background:"|

| Russian Ecological Party "The Greens" || REPZ || Anatoly Panfilov • Viktor Ignatov • Vladimir Yevstafyev

| Centre || Green politics

| 10 || style="background:"|

| Agrarian Party of Russia || APR || Mikhail Lapshin • Alexander Nazarchuk • Alexey Chepa

| Left-wing || Agrarianism / Agrarian socialism

| 11 || style="background:#4D8D39"|

| Genuine Patriots of Russia || IPR || Magomed Radzhabov • Kalsyn Tokayev • Zaur Radzhabov

| Centre-right || Muslim interests

| 12 || style="background:"|

| People's Party of the Russian Federation || NPRF || Gennady Raikov • Gennady Troshev • Nikolay Derzhavin

| Centre-left || Populism / Social conservatism

| 13 || style="background:"|

| Democratic Party of Russia || DPR || Vladimir Podoprigora • Mikhail Kislyuk • Gennady Pushko

| Centre-right || Liberal conservatism / Federalism / Civic nationalism

| 14 || style="background:#7C73CC"|

| Great Russia–Eurasian Union , , || VR–EAS || Pavel Borodin • Ruslan Aushev • Leonid Ivashov

| Centre-left || Eurasian integration / Left-wing populism

| 15 || style="background:"|

| Union of People for Education and Science || SLON || Vyacheslav Igrunov • Nurali Latypov • Andrey Sharomov

| Centre to centre-left || Social liberalism / Scientists' interests

| 16 || style="background:"|

| Rodina (People's Patriotic Union) SEPR, People's Will, || Rodina || Sergey Glazyev • Dmitry Rogozin • Valentin Varennikov

| Syncretic || Russian nationalism / Social conservatism / Statism

| 17 || style="background:"|

| Party of Peace and Unity || PME || Sazhi Umalatova • Viktor Stepanov • Yevgeny Ishchenko

| Left-wing || Soviet patriotism / Eurasianism

| 18 || style="background:"|

| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia || LDPR || Vladimir Zhirinovsky • Alexey Ostrovsky • Igor Lebedev

| Right-wing || Right-wing populism / Unitarism / Anti-communism

| 19 || style="background:"|

| Party of Russia's Rebirth – Russian Party of Life PVR, RPZh || PVR–RPZh || Gennadiy Seleznyov • Sergey Mironov • Valentina Tereshkova

| Centre-left || Left-wing populism / Welfare state / Social democracy

| 20 || style="background:"|

| United Russia || UR || Boris Gryzlov • Sergei Shoigu • Yury Luzhkov

| Centre-right || Statism / Social conservatism / Conservative liberalism

| 21 || style="background:#1F8CFC"|

| Russian Constitutional Democratic Party || RKDP || Vyacheslav Volkov • Irina Alfyorova • Aleksandr Kotenev

| Centre-right || Constitutionalism

| 22 || style="background:#14589F"|

| Development of Enterprise || RP || Ivan Grachev • Oksana Dmitriyeva • Andrey Nechayev

| Centre-right || Economic liberalism

| 23 || style="background:"|

| Communist Party of the Russian Federation || CPRF || Gennady Zyuganov • Nikolai Kondratenko • Nikolay Kharitonov

| Left-wing || Socialism / Left-wing conservatism

Opinion polls

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%; line-height:14px"

! rowspan="3" |Polling firm

! rowspan="3" |Fieldwork date

! Unity

! OVR

! rowspan="2" |CPRF

! rowspan="2" |LDPR

! rowspan="2" |Rodina

! rowspan="2" |Yabloko

! rowspan="2" |SPS

! rowspan="2" |APR

! rowspan="3" |Other

! rowspan="3" |Unsure

! rowspan="3" |Against all

! rowspan="3" |Wouldn't vote

! rowspan="3" |Lead

! colspan="2" |United Russia

| colspan=2; bgcolor="" |

| bgcolor="" |

|-style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

|Election result

|19 Dec 1999

|23.3

|13.3

|24.3

|5.9

|6.0

|8.5

|13.4

|3.3

|bgcolor="" |1

| colspan="15" style="background:#A0A0A0" |

| style="border-right-style:hidden;" |

|26 Mar 2000

!colspan=13|2000 Russian presidential election

| style="border-right-style:hidden;" |

|1 May 2000

!colspan=13|End of the active phase of Second Chechen War, effective Russian victory

|VCIOM

|May 2000

|26||6||style="background:#F8C1BE"|33|| 4 ||||8||9|| 1 || 9 |||| 4 ||

|bgcolor="" |7

|VCIOM

|24–27 Nov 2000

|19||6||style="background:#F8C1BE"|33||7||||8||8|| 2 || 12 |||| 4 ||

|bgcolor="" |14

|FOM

|2–3 Dec 2000

|16|| 3 ||style="background:#F8C1BE"|17|| 3 ||||5||5|||||| 27 || 5 || 12

|bgcolor="" |1

|FOM

|10–11 Feb 2001

|19||7||style="background:#F8C1BE"|21||5||||5|| 3 || 3 |||| 20 || 8 || 8

|bgcolor="" |2

| style="border-right-style:hidden;" |

| Apr 2001

!colspan=13|"Save NTV" protests

|FOM

|14–15 Apr 2001

|19||5||style="background:#F8C1BE"|22||6||||5|| 4 || 2 |||| 14 || 8 || 15

|bgcolor="" |3

|FOM

|21–22 Apr 2001

|style="background:#BDBDFF"|22||8||21|| 4 ||||8||5|| 3 |||| 13 || 7 || 8

|bgcolor="" |1

|FOM

|2–3 Jun 2001

|style="background:#BDBDFF"|23||5||style="background:#F8C1BE"|23||5||||5||5|| 3 |||| 16 || 6 || 11

|Tie

|FOM

|14–15 Jul 2001

|22||6||style="background:#F8C1BE"|23||5|||| 4 || 4 || 2 |||| 18 || 7 || 9

|bgcolor="" |1

|FOM

|8–9 Sep 2001

|22||6||style="background:#F8C1BE"|23|| 4 ||||5|| 3 || 2 |||| 20 || 6 || 9

|bgcolor="" |1

|FOM

|20–21 Oct 2001

|style="background:#BDBDFF"|25||6||22||5|||| 4 || 3 || 2 |||| 18 || 6 || 10

|bgcolor="" |3

| style="border-right-style:hidden;" |

| 1 Dec 2001

!colspan=13| United Russia party founded

|FOM

|2–3 Feb 2002

|colspan=2|21||style="background:#F8C1BE"|24||7||||6|| 4 || 3 |||| 14 || 10 || 10

|bgcolor="" |3

|FOM

|20 Jul 2002

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|31||22||5|||| 3 || 3 || 2 ||||||||

|bgcolor="" |9

|VCIOM

|21–27 Aug 2002

|colspan=2|26|| style="background:#F8C1BE"|34||9||||8||6|| 1 || 12 |||| 5 ||

|bgcolor="" |8

|FOM

|12–13 Oct 2002

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"| 26||23||5||||5||5|| 2 || 1 || 15 || 6 || 10

|bgcolor="" |3

| style="border-right-style:hidden;" |

| 23–26 Oct 2002

!colspan=13|Nord-Ost Hostage Crisis

| rowspan="2" |ARPI

| rowspan="2" |5–9 Dec 2002

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|37||24||8||||8||8||

|8||||7||

|bgcolor="" |13

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|29||13||4||||5||5

|2||12||16||9||7

|bgcolor="" |16

|VCIOM

|20–23 Dec 2002

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"| 27 || style="background:#F8C1BE"|27||9||||7||5|| 2 || 20 |||| 5 ||

|Tie

| rowspan="2" |ARPI

| rowspan="2" |6–10 Feb 2003

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|30||29||9||||8||6||

|8||||10||

|bgcolor="" |1

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|21||18||5||||4||4||5

|15||14||10||9

|bgcolor="" |3

| rowspan="2" |ARPI

| rowspan="2" |21–25 Feb 2003

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|34||29||7||||8||5||

|9||||8||

|bgcolor="" |5

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|20||16||4||||5||4||2

|12||20||10||9

|bgcolor="" |4

| rowspan="2" |ARPI

| rowspan="2" |6–11 Mar 2003

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|32||style="background:#F8C1BE"|32||8||||8||6||

|6||||8||

|Tie

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|20||19||4||||5||4||2

|9||16||11||12

|bgcolor="" |1

| rowspan="2" |ARPI

| rowspan="2" |20–24 Mar 2003

| colspan="2" |31||style="background:#F8C1BE"|36||10||||6||3||

|6||||8||

|bgcolor="" |5

| colspan="2" |21||style="background:#F8C1BE"|23||4||||4||3||4

|6||16||10||9

|bgcolor="" |2

|FOM

|5–6 Apr 2003

|colspan=2|21||style="background:#F8C1BE"|22||5||||5|| 3 || 3 || 1 || 25 || 5 || 11

|bgcolor="" |1

| rowspan="2" |ARPI

| rowspan="2" |3–9 Apr 2003

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|35||34||7||||8||4||

|7||||5||

|bgcolor="" |1

| colspan="2"; style="background:#BDBDFF"|23||18||3||||3||2||1

|8||19||8||15

|bgcolor="" |5

|FOM

|17 May 2003

|colspan=2|19||style="background:#F8C1BE"|21||7||||5|| 3 ||||||||||

|bgcolor="" |2

|VCIOM

|23–26 May 2003

|colspan=2|23|| style="background:#F8C1BE"|28||10||||8||5|||| 7 || 13 || 4 ||

|bgcolor="" |5

|ARPI

|27 May 2003

|colspan=2|22||style="background:#F8C1BE"|23||5|||| 4 ||5||

| 1 || 37 || 3 ||

|bgcolor="" |1

|VCIOM

|20–24 Jun 2003

|colspan=2|26|| style="background:#F8C1BE"|27||6||||8|| 3 || 1 || 10 || 16 || 3 ||

|bgcolor="" |1

|VCIOM

|15–18 Aug 2003

|colspan=2|23|| style="background:#F8C1BE"|28||9||||6||5|| 4 || 6 || 12 || 5 ||

|bgcolor="" |5

|CSP

|2–10 Sep 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|26.8||17.0||7.0||||5.7||5.6|||| 5.6||||||

|bgcolor="" |9.8

|VCIOM-A

|19–22 Sep 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|28||23||5|| 2 ||5||5|| 2 || 6 || 20 || 5 ||

|bgcolor="" |5

|FOM

|11 Oct 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|20||18||7|| 2 || 4 || 4 || 2 || 4 || 21 || 5 || 13

|bgcolor="" |2

|VCIOM-A

|10–13 Oct 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"| 26 || style="background:#F8C1BE"|26 || 5 || 3 || 5 || 4 || 2 || 4 || 20 || 5 ||

| Tie

| style="border-right-style:hidden;" |

| 25 Oct 2003

!colspan=13|Arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky,

|VCIOM-A

|24–28 Oct 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"| 30 || 23 || 5 || 1 || 4 || 6 || 2 || 5 || 17 || 6 ||

|bgcolor="" |7

|FOM

|8–9 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|18.7||16.3||5.1|| 1.2 || 4.2 || 4.5 |||| 6.0 || 25.6 || 5.9 || 12.4

|bgcolor="" |2.4

|VCIOM-A

|13–16 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"| 29 || 23 || 8 || 3 || 6 || 6 || 2 || 4 || 14 || 5 ||

|bgcolor="" |6

|FOM

|15–16 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|19.5||14.9||6.0|| 2.9 || 3.8 || 4.5 |||| 6.2 || 24.1 || 5.7 || 12.2

|bgcolor="" |4.6

|VCIOM

|15–16 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|26.2||19.6||5.3|| 4.1 ||5.4||5.5|| 1.5 || 6.6 || 19.8 || 6.0 ||

|bgcolor="" |6.6

|FOM

|22–23 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|25.1||14.1||6.5|| 3.3 || 2.5 || 3.5 |||| 7.4 || 22.0 || 5.4 || 10.6

|bgcolor="" |11

|ARPI

|27 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|32||9||5|| 2 || 4 ||7|| 2 || 7 || 11 || 5 || 16

|bgcolor="" |23

|FOM

|29–30 Nov 2003

|colspan=2; style="background:#BDBDFF"|28.1||15.8||7.3|| 4.4 || 2.7 || 3.4 |||| 7.3 || 18.3 || 5.0 || 7.9

|bgcolor="" |12.3

Seat projections

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%; line-height:14px"

! rowspan="2" |Projector !! rowspan="2" |Date !! United Russia !! CPRF !! LDPR !! Rodina !! Yabloko !! SPS !! Other

| bgcolor="" |

| NAPP || 8 Oct 2003 || 185 || 135 || 21 |||| 21 || 22 || 66

| NAPP || 3 Nov 2003 || 173 || 108 || 21 || || 25 || 20 || 103

|-style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

| Election result || 7 Dec 2003 || 223 || 52 || 36 || 37 || 4 || 3 || 95

Exit polls

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%; line-height:14px"

! rowspan="2" |Polling firm

! United Russia

! CPRF

! LDPR

! Rodina

! Yabloko

! SPS

! rowspan="2" |Against all

| bgcolor="" |

| FOM

|36||13.3||11.6||9.2||5.1|| 4.7 ||

| ROMIR

|34.1||13.2||10.9||9.5||5.8||6.1|| 6.8

|-style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

|Election result||37.6||12.6||11.5||9.0|| 4.3 || 4.0 || 4.7

Results

Legacy

The 2003 election is cited by scholars as a turning point in Russian politics, as it marked the moment the federal parliament effectively became a rubber stamp body.

Notes

References

External links

Election results – official information