2012 Russian presidential election

2012 Russian presidential election

← 2008 4 March 2012 2018 →
Opinion polls
Registered	109,860,331
Turnout	65.27% (4.44pp)
Nominee Vladimir Putin Gennady Zyuganov Party United Russia Communist Popular vote 45,602,075 12,318,353 Percentage 64.35% 17.38%   Nominee Mikhail Prokhorov Vladimir Zhirinovsky Party Independent LDPR Popular vote 5,722,508 4,458,103 Percentage 8.08% 6.29%
Results by federal subject Vladimir Putin:      45–50%      50–55%      55–60%      60–65%      65–70%      70–75%      75–80%      80–85%      85–90%      90–95%      >95%
President before election Dmitry Medvedev United Russia Elected President Vladimir Putin United Russia

Presidential elections were held in Russia on 4 March 2012.^[1] There were five officially registered candidates: four representatives of registered parties, and one nominal independent. The election was the first one held after constitutional amendments were introduced in 2008, in which the elected president for the first time would serve a six-year term, rather than a four-year term.

At the congress of the ruling United Russia party in Moscow on 24 September 2011, the incumbent president Dmitry Medvedev proposed that his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, stand for the presidency in 2012, an offer which Putin accepted. Putin immediately offered Medvedev the opportunity to stand on the United Russia ticket in the parliamentary elections in December 2011 and become prime minister at the end of his presidential term.^[2] All independents had to register by 15 December 2011, and candidates nominated by parties were required to register by 18 January 2012. The final list was announced on 29 January. On 2 March, outgoing president Medvedev addressed the nation on the national television channels about the upcoming elections, inviting citizens to vote.^{[citation needed]}

Putin received 63.6% of the vote,^[3] securing a third overall term. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers assessed the voting on the election day positively overall, but assessed the vote count negatively in almost one-third of polling stations due to procedural irregularities.^[4][5]