2021 Russian legislative election

2021 Russian legislative election

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All 450 seats in the State Duma 226 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader % Seats +/– United Russia Sergei Shoigu[a] 50.88 324 −19 Communist Gennady Zyuganov 19.33 57 +15 SRZP Sergey Mironov 7.71 27 +4 LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky 7.62 21 −18 New People Alexey Nechayev 5.43 13 New Rodina Aleksey Zhuravlyov 0.82 1 0 Party of Growth Irina Mironova [ru][b] 0.53 1 +1 Civic Platform Rifat Shaykhutdinov 0.16 1 0 Independents – – 5 +4 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. The upper map shows the winning parties in federal subjects. The lower map shows the parties of the winners in the single-member constituencies.   United Russia   CPRF   LDPR   SRZP   Rodina   Party of Growth   Civic Platform   Independents Chairman of the State Duma before Chairman of the State Duma after Vyacheslav Volodin United Russia Vyacheslav Volodin United Russia

Legislative elections were held in Russia from 17 to 19 September 2021. At stake were 450 seats in the 8th convocation of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly. Going into the elections, United Russia was the ruling party after winning the 2016 elections with 343 of the 450 seats, and retaining a supermajority.^[1] In March 2020, it was proposed to hold a snap election in September 2020 due to proposed constitutional reforms, but this idea was abandoned.^[2] On 18 June 2021, Vladimir Putin signed a decree calling the election for 19 September the same year.^[3] Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, voting in the election lasted for three days, from 17 to 19 September.^[c] Final turnout was reported to be 51.72%.^[5][6][7]

Fifteen political parties applied for participation,^[8] 14 of which were guaranteed automatic access to the ballots,^[9][10][11] and one unsuccessfully attempted to be included in the ballot by collecting voters' signatures.^[12] Half, or 225 seats, of the State Duma were elected through legislative constituencies; the other 225 seats were elected through party lists, which cover the whole of Russia.^[d]

Like prior elections in Russia, the election was not free and fair.^[1][14][15] Multiple episodes of ballot-stuffing, forced voting, and other irregularities were recorded.^{[16][1][14][15][17]} Putin's administration and the ruling United Russia party used a managed democracy approach to keep an appearance of political pluralism.^[18][19] The election was marred by nation's most prominent opposition leaders (particularly those associated with jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny) and figures being excluded from ballot, imprisoned or exiled in months coming before the election.^[20][21] Authorities also designated various independent media outlets and non-governmental organisations as "foreign agents", including the independent election monitor Golos.^[20][22][23] The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also said that it would not send observers for the first time since 1993 due to "major limitations" imposed by Russian authorities.^[24]

Following the election, United Russia maintained its constitutional majority despite some losses, taking 324 seats, while it received 49.82% of the vote, according to official results. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation received 57 seats and 18.93% of the vote, while A Just Russia — For Truth received 27 seats and 7.46% of the vote, with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia receiving 21 seats and 7.55% of the vote. New People received 13 seats and 5.32% of the vote, meaning that for the first time since 2007, a fifth faction would be represented in the State Duma.^[25]

The election was marred by widespread accusations of fraud.^{[26][16][1][14][15]} The introduction of remote electronic voting in several regions was also criticized by the opposition, who alleged widespread vote-rigging, especially in Moscow,^{[27][1][28][29]} with the Communist Party refusing to recognize the results of electronic voting in Moscow.^[30] As a result, opposition candidates have sought to annul the electronic voting results by legal means.^{[1][31][32][33]} In response to the election results, protests were held.^[34] Statisticians have attributed the results to mass fraud.^[35]

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