United Russia Dominates New Duma
"Moscow Votes for Putin!" - a 2007 legislative election banner in Moscow.
Elections for Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, took place on September 18. United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin, made considerable gains and increased its parliamentary majority from 238 seats to 343. This was to the detriment of the only other three opposition parties in the Duma: the Liberal Democrats, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and A Just Russia saw their parliamentary representation all but wiped out.
Half of the Duma’s seats are allocated by the “party list” voting method. TsIK, the Central Electoral Commision, announced that United Russia had won 54.28 percent of the party list vote on September 19. In 2011, all of the Duma’s were elected from party lists, but this year the Russian government reintroduced single constituency elections for 225 of the 450 seats. Reports have speculated that this may have to do with United Russia’s poor performance in the election five years ago.
President Putin promised unprecedently free and fair elections, perhaps fearing a repeat of the 2011-2012 mass protests prompted by claims of large scale voter fraud. Many third parties are not convinced, with the OSCE giving a luke-warm reception to the results. TsIK broadcast webcams from polling stations around Russia to demonstrate Russia’s electoral integrity. This backfired when videos from Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov on Don, and Daghestan showed election attendants poorly disguising attempts to stuff ballot boxes.
Poor voter turnout also takes away from Putin’s claim of improved electoral credibility. TsIK reported about a 12 percent drop in turnout at the polls, down from approximately 60 percent in 2011 to 47.81 percent. Political analyst Aleksandr Kynev stated that the Kremlin was relying on protest voters staying home and claimed that “it was a rigged game.” Sociologist Ella Paneyakh interprets the lowest urban turnout in ten years as a “general strike” by the middle-class.
Kremlin-aligned media did not report heavily on foreign claims of mass voter fraud, instead choosing to focus on the difference from the elections in 2011. Sputnik News, established by the Russian government and run by state news station Russia Today, posted articles online such as, “Observers Note Increase Transparency” and “CIS Mission Praises ‘Transparency and Democratic Nature’ of Russian Elections.”
Among the new deputies in the Duma were Natalia Poklonskaya and Vitaly Milonov. Natalya Poklonskaya, the youngest female Russian General famed for her nationalist speeches during the 2014 occupation of Crimea and the resulting wave of anime fan fiction, won a seat in the Duma as a list member from the Republic of Crimea. Vitaly Milonov, a Kremlin loyalist, became a member representing Saint Petersburg. Milonov is well-known throughout Russia for his homophobic rhetoric. On October 30, 2014, he complained about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s homosexuality, saying, “What else will he bring us? The Ebola virus, AIDS, gonorrhea?” These people will make up Putin’s new cohort in the Duma.
The very few remnants of independent Russian media have started to speculate as to what President Putin will do with his new “supermajority.” News website SLON notes that there could be a number of bills in the pipeline for the new Duma to approve, including laws to limit abortion, a complete new edition of the Russian legal codex, and a ban on hostels.
Yet United Russia’s parliamentary dominance will not actually change Russia’s political direction. Putin is trying to reestablish domestic democratic legitimacy, despite the fact that he is increasing his ever-tightening grip on the levers of power in Russia. Gennady Gudkov, former KGB Colonel and opposition deputy, reacted to the election saying that Russia’s regime in the Kremlin is transforming from “authoritarian to totalitarian.”