2003 Russian legislative election

Legislative elections were held in Russia on 7 December 2003. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Federal Assembly.

← 1999

7 December 2003

2007 →

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

Turnout

55.75% ( 6.10 pp)

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Boris Gryzlov	Gennady Zyuganov	Sergey Glazyev
Party	United Russia	CPRF	Rodina
Leader since	20 November 2002	14 February 1993	14 September 2003
Leader's seat	Federal list	Federal list	Podolsk
Last election	New	113 seats, 24.29%	New
Seats won	223	52	37
Seat change	New	61	New
Popular vote	22,776,294	7,647,820	5,470,429
Percentage	37.56% (PL)	12.61% (PL)	9.02% (PL)
Swing	New	11.68%	New

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Vladimir Zhirinovsky	Gennady Raikov	Grigory Yavlinsky
Party	LDPR	NPRF	Yabloko
Leader since	13 December 1989	29 September 2001	16 October 1993
Leader's seat	Federal list	Tyumen	Federal list (lost)
Last election	17 seats, 5.20%	New	20 seats, 5.93%
Seats won	36	17	4
Seat change	19	New	16
Popular vote	6,944,322	714,705	2,610,087
Percentage	11.35% (PL)	1.18% (PL)	4.30% (PL)
Swing	6.15%	New	1.63%

	Seventh party	Eighth party	Ninth party

Leader	Boris Nemtsov	Gennadiy Seleznyov	Mikhail Lapshin
Party	SPS	PVR–RPZh	APR
Leader since	27 May 2001	7 September 2002	26 February 1993
Leader's seat	Federal list (lost)	Northern SPb	Federal list (lost)
Last election	29 seats, 8.52%	New	11 seats (inside OVR)
Seats won	3	3	2
Seat change	26	New	9
Popular vote	2,408,535	1,140,413	2,205,850
Percentage	3.97% (PL)	1.88% (PL)	3.64% (PL)
Swing	4.55%	New	–

Chairman of the State Duma before election

Gennadiy Seleznyov
PVR

Elected Chairman of the State Duma

Boris Gryzlov
United Russia

As expected, the pro-Vladimir Putin United Russia party received the most votes (38%) and won the most seats, gaining a plurality in the Duma. The Communist Party remained the second largest, though much reduced in strength. The Liberal Democratic Party improved its position by 19 seats, while the liberal Yabloko and the liberal-conservative Union of Right Forces lost most of their seats.

Opinion polls

Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Unity	OVR	CPRF	LDPR	Rodina	Yabloko	SPS	Other	Unsure	Against all	Wouldn't vote	Lead
		United Russia		CPRF	LDPR	Rodina	Yabloko	SPS

Election result	19 Dec 1999	23.3	13.3	24.3	5.9	—	6.0	8.5	13.4	—	3.3	—	1

VCIOM	May 2000	26	6	33	4	—	8	9	10	—	4	—	7
VCIOM	24-27 Nov 2000	19	6	33	7	—	8	8	14	—	4	—	14
FOM	2-3 Dec 2000	16	3	17	3	—	5	5	—	27	5	12	1
FOM	10-11 Feb 2001	19	7	21	5	—	5	3	3	20	8	8	2
FOM	14-15 Apr 2001	19	5	22	6	—	5	4	2	14	8	15	3
FOM	21-22 Apr 2001	22	8	21	4	—	8	5	3	13	7	8	1
FOM	2-3 Jun 2001	23	5	23	5	—	5	5	3	16	6	11	Tie
FOM	14-15 Jul 2001	22	6	23	5	—	4	4	2	18	7	9	1
FOM	8-9 Sep 2001	22	6	23	4	—	5	3	2	20	6	9	1
FOM	20-21 Oct 2001	25	6	22	5	—	4	3	2	18	6	10	3
FOM	2-3 Feb 2002	21		24	7	—	6	4	3	14	10	10	3
FOM	20 Jul 2002	31	22	5	—	3	3	2	—	—	—	9
VCIOM	21-27 Aug 2002	26		34	9	—	8	6	13	—	5	—	8
FOM	12-13 Oct 2002	26	23	5	—	5	5	3	15	6	10	3
VCIOM	20-23 Dec 2002	27	27	9	—	7	5	22	—	5	—	Tie
FOM	5-6 Apr 2003	21		22	5	—	5	3	4	25	5	11	1
FOM	17 May 2003	19		21	7	—	5	3	—	—	—	—	2
VCIOM	23-26 May 2003	23		28	10	—	8	5	7	13	4	—	5
VCIOM	20-24 Jun 2003	26		27	6	—	8	3	11	16	3	—	1
VCIOM	15-18 Aug 2003	23		28	9	—	6	5	10	12	5	—	5
VCIOM-A	19-22 Sep 2003	28	23	5	2	5	5	8	20	5	—	5
FOM	11 Oct 2003	20	18	7	2	4	4	6	21	5	13	2
VCIOM-A	10-13 Oct 2003	26	26	5	3	5	4	6	20	5	—	Tie
VCIOM-A	24-28 Oct 2003	30	23	5	1	4	6		17	6	—	7
VCIOM-A	13 Nov 2003	29	23	8	3	6	6		14	5	—	6
FOM	8-9 Nov 2003	18.7	16.3	5.1	1.2	4.2	4.5	6.0	25.6	5.9	12.4	2.4
FOM	15-16 Nov 2003	19.5	14.9	6.0	2.9	3.8	4.5	6.2	24.1	5.7	12.2	4.6
FOM	22-23 Nov 2003	25.1	14.1	6.5	3.3	2.5	3.5	7.4	22.0	5.4	10.6	11
FOM	29-30 Nov 2003	28.1	15.8	7.3	4.4	2.7	3.4	7.3	18.3	5.0	7.9	12.3

Exit polls

Polling firm	United Russia	CPRF	LDPR	Rodina	Yabloko	SPS	Against all
Polling firm							Against all
FOM	36	13.3	11.6	9.2	5.1	4.7	—
ROMIR	34.1	13.2	10.9	9.5	5.8	6.1	6.8
Election result	37.6	12.6	11.5	9.0	4.3	4.0	4.7

Results



Party		Party-list			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
Party		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Total seats	+/–
	United Russia	22,776,294	38.16	120	14,123,625	23.95	103	223	New
	Communist Party	7,647,820	12.81	40	6,577,598	11.15	12	52	−61
	Liberal Democratic Party	6,944,322	11.64	36	1,860,905	3.16	0	36	+19
	National Patriotic Union "Rodina"	5,470,429	9.17	29	1,719,147	2.92	8	37	New
	Yabloko	2,610,087	4.37	0	1,580,629	2.68	4	4	−16
	Union of Right Forces	2,408,535	4.04	0	1,764,290	2.99	3	3	−26
	Agrarian Party	2,205,850	3.70	0	1,104,974	1.87	2	2	New
	Russian Pensioners' Party–Party of Social Justice	1,874,973	3.14	0	342,891	0.58	0	0	−1
	Party of Russia's Rebirth–Russian Party of Life	1,140,413	1.91	0	1,584,904	2.69	3	3	New
	People's Party	714,705	1.20	0	2,677,889	4.54	17	17	New
	Conceptual Party "Unity"	710,721	1.19	0	9,334	0.02	0	0	New
	New Course — Automobile Russia	509,302	0.85	0	222,090	0.38	1	1	New
	For a Holy Russia	298,826	0.50	0	59,986	0.10	0	0	New
	Russian Ecological Party "The Greens"	253,985	0.43	0	69,585	0.12	0	0	0
	Development of Enterprise	212,827	0.36	0	237,527	0.40	1	1	New
	Great Russia – Eurasian Union	170,796	0.29	0	464,602	0.79	1	1	New
	Genuine Patriots of Russia	149,151	0.25	0	2,564	0.00	0	0	New
	Party of Peace and Unity	148,954	0.25	0	10,664	0.02	0	0	0
	United Russian Party Rus'	147,441	0.25	0	570,453	0.97	0	0	New
	Democratic Party	136,295	0.23	0	94,810	0.16	0	0	New
	Russian Constitutional Democratic Party	113,190	0.19	0				0	New
	Union of People for Education and Science	107,448	0.18	0	16,111	0.03	0	0	New
	People's Republican Party	80,420	0.13	0	2,995	0.01	0	0	New
	Other parties				288,866	0.49	0	0	–
	Independents				15,843,626	26.86	67	67	−38
Against all		2,851,958	4.78	–	7,744,998	13.13	3	3	−5
Total		59,684,742	100.00	225	58,975,063	100.00	225	450	0

Valid votes		59,684,742	98.44		58,975,063	97.93
Invalid/blank votes		948,435	1.56		1,247,491	2.07
Total votes		60,633,177	100.00		60,222,554	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		108,906,250	55.67		108,906,250	55.30
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, IPU, 2003 elections

Legacy

The 2003 election is cited by scholars as a turning point in Russian politics, as it marked the moment the federal parliament effectively became a rubber stamp body.