Johnson's Russia List 3685  16-12-99
#1
Russian State Duma election rules
  
MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russia will hold an election to the State Duma 
lower house of parliament on December 19 which will be contested by 27 
parties and blocs and 2,318 candidates in constituencies across 11 time 
zones. 

Following is a brief outline of rules for the election. 

Contestants contest all 450 seats in the chamber. Half of them go to parties 
and political blocs that muster more than five percent with the seats 
allocated in proportion to the number of actual votes cast for a particular 
party. 

Winners in individual constituencies occupy the remaining 225 seats. 

Elections will only actually take place this time in 224 constituencies. The 
one constituency that will not take part is Chechnya, where Russian troops 
are battling Islamic rebels. 

Participants in the vote are allowed to campaign from the day of their 
official registration by the Central Election Commission up to 32 hours 
before the start of the vote. 

Distribution of opinion polls and other election-related research must stop 
three days before voting. 

Polling stations open at 8 a.m. local time and close at 8 p.m. 

Voters in remote areas and on ships at sea may vote in advance but not more 
than 15 days before election day. 

COUNTING RULES ARE COMPLEX 

In individual constituencies, victory goes to the person who wins a simple 
majority of votes. If it is a tie, the candidate who registered first with 
the election commission is the winner. 

A vote in any constituency is null and void if less than 25 percent of 
registered voters cast ballots or if more people choose ``none of the above'' 
from the list than there are votes for the winning candidate. 

Local election commissions annul the results of a vote if they consider they 
cannot reliably count them because of violations and if results in more than 
25 percent of the total number of polling stations in a constituency have 
been invalidated. 

Parties and blocs which win more than five percent of the votes share the 225 
seats allocated to them in the lower chamber but only if their combined 
result exceeds 50 percent. 

If they fail to reach that level then parties with less than five but more 
than three percent are gradually added to the winners list until their 
combined total exceeds 50 percent. 

If one party wins more than 50 percent of the votes and all others fail to 
clear the five percent barrier then the second best enters the Duma along 
with the winner no matter what percentage of votes it gained. 

The Central Election Commission divides the total number of ballots cast for 
parties and blocs by the number of seats they contest -- 225. 

This allows it to establish how many ballots were cast for each seat. Then 
the number of votes cast for each party is divided by the number for each 
seat, giving the parties a particular amount of places in the Duma. 

Official election results must be published within three weeks of the day of 
the vote. 

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Forwarded by
Andrew Jameson
Chair, Russian Committee, ALL 
Languages and Professional Development
1 Brook Street, Lancaster LA1 1SL UK
Tel: 01524 32371  (+44 1524 32371)


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