1989 Soviet Union legislative election

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1989 Soviet Union legislative election
← 1984 March–May 1989
All 2,250 seats in the Congress of People's Deputies
Turnout172,840,130 (89.8%)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Party CPSU Non-CPSU members
Seats won 1958 292
Popular vote 150,370,913 22,469,217
Percentage 87% 13%
Chairman of the Council of Ministers before election

Nikolai Ryzhkov
CPSU

Elected Chairman of the Council of Ministers

Nikolai Ryzhkov
CPSU

Pereslavl

Legislative elections were held in the

free nationwide elections held in the Soviet Union, and would be the last national elections held in that country before its dissolution in 1991. The elections were followed by regional elections in 1990
, which would be the last regional elections to take place in the country.

Background

In January 1987 Communist Party (CPSU) General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev announced the new policy of demokratizatsiya (democratization). Under this concept the electorate would have a choice between multiple candidates per constituency, although CPSU would effectively remain the ruling party (in the absence of other parties). The concept was introduced by Gorbachev to enable him to circumvent the CPSU hardliners who resisted his perestroika and glasnost reform campaigns, while still maintaining the Soviet Union as a one-party communist state.

Electoral system

In December 1988 the

deputies, who would elect a 542-member Supreme Soviet from among its members to serve as the "working" parliament.[1]

The 2,250 members of the CPD consisted of 1,500 directly elected from single-member constituencies by the two-round system and 750 seats reserved for public bodies.[1] Of the 1,500 directly elected seats, 750 were elected from "Territorial Districts" of equal population and 750 were elected from "National Territorial Districts" based on republics and autonomous regions irrelevant of population (32 from each Soviet Socialist Republic, 11 from each Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, 5 from each Autonomous Oblast and one from each Autonomous Okrug).[2] Voters had two ballots, one for their Territorial District and one for their National Territorial District.[3]

Of the 750 reserved for public bodies, 100 were elected by the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, 100 by the CPSU, 75 by the Committee of Soviet Women, 75 by Komsomol and 325 by other bodies,[1] including the Academy of Sciences, the All-Union Voluntary Temperance Society, artistic unions and collective farm associations.[3]

Campaign

Candidates were required to be nominated by organisations and had to be supported at a meeting of at least 500 voters.[3] This was followed by a caucus meeting, at which candidates had to receive support from at least 50% of those present, before proceeding to the final stage, where they had to be approved by district electoral assemblies formed by worker collectives.[3][4]

A total of 7,531 candidates nominated themselves for the directly elected seats, of which 5,074 were registered to contest the elections,[1] around 90% of which were CPSU members.[3] Amongst those blocked from standing were Boris Nemtsov, who had attempted to run in Nizhegorodsky District 158 in Gorky.[4] 399 constituencies had only one candidate.[1] Around 85% of candidates were CPSU members.[1]

The 750 reserved seats were contested by 880 candidates.[1]

Results

Voter turnout by republic:
  >95%
  90–95%
  85–90%
  80–85%
  70–75%

Of the 1,500 directly elected seats, 1,226 were won in the first round.

Azerbaijan SSR.[2] Of the 274 remaining seats, 76 went to a second round on 2 and 9 April while voting in 198 had to be repeated due voter turnout being below 50%, with repeat voting on 20 April, 14 May and 23 May.[6] Around 162 million people voted in the contests for the 750 reserved seats, a turnout of 84%.[6] Repeat elections were required for five reserved seats.[6]

Although the CPSU candidates won 87% of the seats, 38 CPSU regional secretaries lost in their constitutencies.

Estonian SSR the Popular Front won around half the seats.[7]

Among the dissidents elected were

elected to the RSFSR's Congress and then, indirectly, to its Supreme Soviet. Anti-corruption prosecutor Telman Gdlyan, trapeze artist Valentin Dikul, ethnographer Galina Starovoytova, lawyer Anatoly Sobchak, physicist Andrei Sakharov, weightlifter Yury Vlasov, and hockey player Anatoli Firsov
were among the other non-endorsed candidates who were elected to the CPD.

All in all, while the majority of seats were won by endorsed candidates, one Politburo member, five

TASS and Izvestia
, despite the strong opposition of hardliners within the Politburo and Central Committee.

PartyVotes%Seats
Communist Party of the Soviet Union150,370,91387.001,958
Independents22,469,21713.00292
Total172,840,130100.002,250

Aftermath

The first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies opened on 25 May 1989.

Inter-Regional Deputies Group, formed of Russian nationalists and liberals. As it was the final legislative group in the Soviet Union, those elected in 1989 played a vital part in continuing reforms and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union
two years later.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Elections held in 1989". Intar-Parliamentary Union.
  2. ^ a b c Toshihiko Ueno (1990). "Electoral Reform and the 1st Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR" (PDF). Acta Slavica Iaponica. 8: 51–65.
  3. ^ a b c d e "THE WORLD: The Soviet Vote; A Guide to the Election Process". The New York Times. 26 March 1989.
  4. ^ a b c "The Soviet Union had a competitive election 30 years ago. Russians are still fighting for one". The Washington Post. 28 March 2019.
  5. ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
    .
  6. ^ a b c Soviet Union: A country study (PDF). p. 347.
  7. ^
    JSTOR 45182528
    .
  8. ^ "1989: Millions of Russians go to the polls". BBC News. 27 March 1989.
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