Elections in Russia - Elections Legislation

Elections Legislation

A complement of legislation governs elections in the Russian Federation. Foundation principles on which elections and citizens’ electoral rights are enshrined in the Constitution and clarified in the Law on Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Rights of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum (Basic Guarantees). Initially this law was intended to underpin the standards and principles that would govern all elections. As it was enacted in 1994, the Basic Guarantees law also set forth relatively specific procedural principles on which subsequent election laws were to be based. Throughout the years, the law was modified.

Russian electoral legislation suffers from an unusual degree of instability. In the past, a new law was adopted for each Duma election: in 1995 for the 1995 elections, in 1999 for the 1999 elections, 2002 for the 2003 elections and 2005 for the 2007 elections. The amendments to the legislation that were passed in the period from 2005 to 2007 were more radical than those of the preceding ten years. The Duma election law of 2005 continues to apply, though it has been the subject of several amendments. From 1994 to 2005 all legislators made an effort to adopt the amendments in packages, so electoral legislation was amended once or twice between elections. Since 2006 amending electoral legislation has become a continuous process. In 2006 and 2007 the authorities amended the law on basic guarantees eleven times and they amended the law on the Duma elections eight times. Between 2008 and 2011 the law on basic guarantees was subject to 28 amendments, while the law on Duma elections underwent 17 amendments.