Recent Russian Federal Elections in Dagestan: Implications for Proposed Electoral Reform

Abstract

THE RUSSIAN STATE DUMA ELECTION, on 7 December 2003, and the presidential election, on 14 March 2004, both showed particularly high levels of voter turnout and support in North Caucasian republics for the party of power. How should these results be interpreted? Dagestan's election results provide an interesting study, and suggest possible consequences of President Putin's proposed electoral changes. The Russian State Duma consists of 450 representatives. Half of these are currently elected in single-mandate territorial districts. The other half of the Duma representatives are chosen from electoral lists of federal political parties registered by the Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation and certified by the Central Electoral Commission for participation in the election. On 13 September 2004 President Putin proposed that all Duma representatives should be subsequently selected from party lists. According to the Central Electoral Commission, there are presently more than 108 million voters in Russia, or approximately 482,300 voters per territorial district.1 Each territorial electoral district should approximate this number, while not breaching the boundaries that separate the 89 administrative subjects of the Russian Federation. From the first Duma election, in December 1993, Dagestan was divided into two single-mandate territorial districts with approximately 550,000 voters in each. These were the Buinaksky electoral district, No. 10, and the Makhachkalinsky electoral district, No. 11, together giving Dagestan two seats in the lower chamber of the legislative organ. Prior to the 2003 Duma election, however, Dagestani leaders persuaded the Central Electoral Commission to add one district in Dagestan. The addition was justified in terms of a significant increase in Dagestan's population in the interval since the 1989 census. Designated as the Derbentsky district, No. 12, Dagestan's third electoral territory was established at the expense of other regions of Russia with declining populations.2 The addition of this third district offered improved prospects for the attainment of balanced ethnic representation, which is the perennial aim of Dagestani leaders. With this in view, Dagestan's internal raiony were redistributed among the three districts in order to create three electoral units with approximately the same number of voters. The new Derbentsky electoral district established in the southern regions of the Republic includes somewhat greater numbers of ethnic Lezgin than ethnic Dargin