RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION – 2004 Report by Nils Gunnar Songstad NORDEM Report 11/2004 Copyright: the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights/NORDEM and (author(s)). NORDEM, the Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights, is a programme of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), and has as its main objective to actively promote international human rights. NORDEM is jointly administered by NCHR and the Norwegian Refugee Council. NORDEM works mainly in relation to multilateral institutions. The operative mandate of the programme is realised primarily through the recruitment and deployment of qualified Norwegian personnel to international assignments which promote democratisation and respect for human rights. The programme is responsible for the training of personnel before deployment, reporting on completed assignments, and plays a role in research related to areas of active involvement. The vast majority of assignments are channelled through the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. NORDEM Report is a series of reports documenting NORDEM activities and is published jointly by NORDEM and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. Series editor: Siri Skåre Series consultants: Hege Mørk, Gry Kval, Christian Boe Astrup The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher(s). ISSN: 1503–1330 ISBN: 82–90851– 79– 0 NORDEM Report is available online at: http://www.humanrights.uio.no/forskning/publ/publikasjonsliste.html RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - 2004 1 Preface The OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission (EOM) to monitor the presidential election in the Russian Federation on 14 March 2004 was headed by Julian Peel Yates (UK). A core team of 17 election experts were based in Moscow. On 13 February 2004, 34 long-term observers (LTO) arrived and were deployed to Moscow and 15 other locations in the Russian Federation. The election day observation was under the auspices of the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM), which was a co-operative undertaking of OSCE/ODIHR and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). A total of 340 STOs were deployed on election day, including 12 from PACE, reporting from some 1,600 polling stations out of a total of some 95,000 countrywide. NORDEM, The Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights was asked by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to identify two long-term observers (LTO). They were Kenneth de Figueiredo who covered the region of the Kalmyk Republic and Nils Gunnar Songstad who covered the region of Moscow North. The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights / NORDEM University of Oslo August 2004 RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - 2004 2 Contents Preface Contents Map of Country Introduction ............................................................................................................................3 Political background ..............................................................................................................3 The Legislative Framework...................................................................................................4 The Electoral Administration ................................................................................................5 Voter and Civic Education ....................................................................................................6 Voter Registration ..................................................................................................................7 Candidate registration ............................................................................................................8 The Election campaign ..........................................................................................................9 The Media............................................................................................................................ 10 Observation on the Polling Day ......................................................................................... 11 Observation of the opening ............................................................................................ 13 Observation of the polling.............................................................................................. 13 Observation of the closing and counting ....................................................................... 15 Observation of the tabulation ......................................................................................... 16 The review of Complaints Process..................................................................................... 17 Conclusions and recommendations.................................................................................... 17 Comments on the election observation mission ................................................................ 18 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 19 Observing organisation’s statement/preliminary report................................................ 19 Copy of observers’ reporting form................................................................................. 19 CEC protocol and final results, 23 March 2004............................................................ 19 RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - 2004 3 Introduction The EOM was established in response to the invitation from the Central Election Commission (CEC) to observe the presidential election’s compliance with the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document and national legislation. Seven candidates, including the incumbent president, obtained registration as presidential candidates. The context of the election observation was one of very high popularity scores for the incumbent president, Vladimir Putin, who was widely expected to be elected to a second term in office. As expected, Putin was re-elected with a clear margin to the other candidates in the first round of the election. The overall assessment is that the presidential election was generally well administered but lacked elements of a genuine democratic contest. The election campaign was very low key and lacked central features of a competitive election, such as political rallies and posters presenting the candidates. Broadcasted debates between presidential candidates took place without the incumbent president who did not want to take part. Furthermore, the state controlled broadcasters favoured the incumbent president in their news coverage. The CEC and lower level election commissions demonstrated a high degree of professionalism in the technical preparations for the election. On election day, however, shortcomings compromising the secrecy of the vote and transparency of the counting process were reported. In the course of the pre-election period, the voter turnout proved to be an issue of concern to the election commissions. As the election result was very much given before election day there was fear of voter apathy causing the turnout to fall below the required 50 percent. Election commissions and local administration devoted much work to ensure that voters turned out in sufficient number to ensure a valid election. Simultaneously with the presidential election, numerous other electoral contests took place in various parts of the country. These additional elections included one republic presidential election, nine governorship elections, six federal subject legislature elections, and many municipal elections. There were also re-run elections taking place in three single-mandate constituencies for the State Duma. This report draws on the LTO observations in Moscow, general findings by the core team and other LTOs during the pre-election period and STOs on election day. Political background The Russian Federation is a federal presidential republic.1 The 14 March 2004 election was the third presidential election since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and 1 Administratively, the country consists of 89 regional entities, or “federal subjects”, a generic term that embraces 21 national republics, six territories, 49 regions, one autonomous region, two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and 10 autonomous districts. The president’s relations with the 89 federal subjects are conducted mainly through presidential representatives to seven federal districts, into which the 89 subjects have been grouped. RUSSIAN FEDERATION: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - 2004 4 adoption of the 1993 constitution. The constitution gives the president extensive powers but restrict the number of terms to two successive four-year terms. Vladimir Putin was elected on 26 March 2000 with 52.94 percent of the votes. In the 7 December 2003 elections to the lower chamber of the legislature (State Duma), the pro-Putin United Russia became the largest party with 224 of the 450 seats. The established opposition parties experienced a dramatic decline in support. For the 2004 presidential election, the Central Election Commission (CEC) received 11 nominations. Seven candidates ultimately secured registration. Name2 Nominated by Registered on the basis of Sergey GLAZYEV Self-nominated 2.2 million signatures Oleg MALYSHKIN LDPR Automatic Sergey MIRONOV Russian Party of Life 2.4 million signatures Vladimir PUTIN Self-nominated 2.5 million signatures Ivan RYBKIN Self-nominated 2.5 million signatures Irina KHAKAMADA Self-nominated 2.46 million signatures Nikolay KHARITONOV CPRF