Russian legislative election, 2003

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Legislative elections were held in the Russian Federation on December 7 2003. At stake were 450 seats in the State Council (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Russian legislature.

As expected, the United Russia party of President Vladimir Putin won the largest number of votes and seats, reducing most other parties to minor status. Even the formal figure of 221 seats for United Russia is an underestimate, because most of the minor party and "independent" members are in fact clients or supporters of President Putin. The elections have thus given Putin complete control of the legislature.

Of the other parties, the Communist Party is still the largest, though much reduced in strength. The extreme right-wing Liberal Democratic Party improved its position by a few delegates. The liberal Yabloko party lost most of its seats. The only other significant party is the Homeland Union, a loose alliance of regional groupings.

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National summary of votes and seats

Summary of the 7 December 2003 Russian Duma election results^edit
Parties and coalitions		Votes	%	Seats
United Russia (Yedinaya Rossiya)		22,529,459	38.0	222
Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Kommunisticheskaya partiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii)		7,622,568	12.8	51
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Liberal’no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii)		6,923,444	11.7	37
Motherland-National Patriotic Union (Rodina - Narodno-Patrioticheskiy Soyuz)		5,443,053	9.2	37
Yabloko (Rossiyskaya Demokraticheskaya Partiya "Yabloko")		2,601,549	4.4	4
Union of Right Forces (Soyuz Pravykh Sil)		2,390,868	4.0	3
Agrarian Party of Russia (Agrarnaya Partiya Rossii)		2,201,806	3.7	3
Coalition:	Russian Pensioners' Party (Rossiyskaya Partiya Pensionerov)	1,869,729	3.1	1
Coalition:	Russian Social Justice Party (Rossiyskaya Partiya Spravedlivosti)	1,869,729	3.1	1
Coalition:	Party of Russia's Rebirth (Partiya Vozrozhdeniya Rossii)	707,434	1.9	3
Coalition:	Russian Party of Life (Rossiyskaya Partiya Zhizni)	707,434	1.9	3
People's Party of the Russian Federation (Narodnaya partiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii)		707,434	1.2	16
Unity (Yedineniye)			1.2
Others and non-partisans			.	74
Total (turnout 54.7 %)		59,297,970		450
Registered voters		108,404,870
Source: These figures are from the Russian Election Commission and appear to be the final data.