2003 Russian legislative election

2003 Russian legislative election

← 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 –
Winning party by region (PR)
Chairman of the State Duma before election Gennadiy Seleznyov PVR Elected Chairman of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov United Russia

Legislative elections were held in Russia on 7 December 2003.^[1] At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), the lower house of the Federal Assembly.

As expected, the pro-Vladimir Putin United Russia party received the most votes (38%) and won the most seats, gaining an absolute majority 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.

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	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	–	–	–
Vacant seats							3	3	–
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[2]

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.^[3][4][5]

• Election results – official information Archived 10 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)