1991 Russian presidential election

In the election of the Supreme Soviet of Russia's Congress of People's Deputies of Russia lower chamber members in the 1990 Russian legislative election, communist candidates won 86% of the seats. On 31 May 1990, Boris Yeltsin was elected Chair of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation in a vote by the body's members; this made him the de facto leader of the Russian SFSR. The vote had been relatively close, as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had unsuccessfully tried to convince enough members of the Supreme Soviet to vote against Yeltsin. Russians voted in favor of creating and holding elections to these offices. On 4 April the Congress of People's Deputies ordered the creation of legislation to authorize the election. While still failing to set an official date for the election, the Congress of People's Deputies provisionally scheduled the election for 12 June. This provisional date would later become the official date of the election. Ultimately, the Congress of People's Deputies would approve for an election to be held, scheduling its initial round of voting to be held roughly three months after the referendum had been decided. Several sub-national elections were scheduled to coincide with the first round of the presidential election. This included mayoral elections in Moscow and Leningrad, and executive elections in federal subjects such as Tatarstan. There were also sub-national referendums scheduled to coincide with the presidential election. These included a number of referendums in which cities were determining whether or not residents wanted to revert to their historic city names, such as in Sverdlovsk (historically Yekaterinburg) and Leningrad (historically Saint Petersburg). Electoral system In a difference to subsequent Russian presidential elections, a vice-presidential candidate stood for election along with the presidential candidate. Similarly to the United States presidential election system, the candidature of Vice President of the RSFSR was exhibited along with the candidacy of the President of the RSFSR as a joint entry on the ballot paper. Preliminary legislation outlining the rules of the election was passed on 24 April by the Supreme Soviet of Russia; however, it ultimately took the Supreme Soviet until three weeks before the day of the election to finalize the rules that would govern the election. The president would be elected to a five-year term, and could serve a maximum of two terms. All candidates needed to be nominated before they could achieve ballot registration. Candidates could be nominated by RSFSR political parties, trade unions, and public organizations. In mid-May, election commission chairman Vasilii Kazakov announced that the election would be budgeted at 155 million rubles. The results of the first round were to be counted and announced by a 22 June deadline. It had ultimately been determined that, if needed, a runoff would be scheduled to be held within two weeks after the first round. The Supreme Soviet committee that had been tasked with redrafting the Russian Constitution deadlocked over the powers of the presidency. Attempts to reach a single resolution would continue after the election. By November, the committee would give up on reaching a single resolution, and opted to instead present two different drafts, one created by Yeltsin allies and one created by Yeltsin opponents. Neither of these would be approved. The failure to resolve these matters would ultimately contribute to the later eruption of the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. ==Candidates==

Although Yeltsin ran as an independent, he was supported by Democratic Russia. Despite the fact that four candidates were members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Ryzhkov was the only one who was officially nominated by the party. The other communists participating in the election ran as self-nominated candidates. Yeltsin was the vast favorite to win the election. Rather than coalescing around a single candidate to challenge Yeltsin, the forces of the Soviet Communist establishment instead fielded a number of candidates, with Ryzhkov being their official candidate. Since no candidate was believed to have a chance of outright defeating Yeltsin in the first round of the election, Communists hoped that a wider field of candidates would increase the odds that they could siphon enough support away from Yeltsin that they could force the election into a runoff (which would occur if no candidate captured more than 50% of the votes cast). Communists believed that the political climate in Russia might be different by the fall, and perhaps less favorable to Yeltsin. Thus, they wagered that, by the time that a runoff vote might be held, Yeltsin might be in a weaker position as a candidate. Ultimately, Yeltsin succeeded in capturing a majority of the votes cast in the first round, negating the need for a runoff to be held. Having an immensely comfortable lead, Yeltsin ran a relatively low-intensity campaign. Rather than heightening rhetoric and rallying voters, Yeltsin took a far more relaxed approach, taking very few shots at his challengers and offering very little specifics in regards to policy. In contrast, his opponents, trailing Yeltsin's gargantuan lead and having very little time left to decrease their deficit, took many shots at him and at each other. ==Conduct==

The election had around 98,000 polling locations, and ballot papers were hand-counted. While widely celebrated both in Russia and abroad as a breakthrough in Soviet/Russian democratization, the election was not entirely free and fair. Shlyaga called for the establishment of election committees and urged that servicemen be briefed on the relative merits of the presidential candidates. On the eve of the election, in what was seen as a politically motivated move, the chief Soviet prosecutor announced that he was looking into currency violations by Yeltsin. This was a deal that was never implemented but for which then-RSFSR Deputy Prime Minister Gennadii Fil'shin had resigned the previous February. CPSU media outlets, particularly towards the end of the campaign, attacked Yeltsin, accusing him of authoritarianism and incompetence. Pro-Yeltsin publications, and occasionally anti-Yeltsin publications, were critical in their coverage of Zhirinovsky. They belittled his candidacy and characterized him variably as "possessed" as well as a "Brownshirt" (Nazi), fascist, chauvinist, and Stalinist. ORT cast biased coverage of proceedings in the Russian legislature, broadcast a lengthy documentary on Ryzhkov shortly before the election, and also broadcast many anti-Yeltsin programs. however, the station was allowed to launch its regular broadcasts on 13 May. Nevertheless, in many places local Communist authorities interfered with the signals of pro-Yeltsin broadcasts by the network. There was no signal interference experienced by ORT's anti-Yeltsin broadcasts. The Baltimore Sun called it "the first political bombing in the capital for more than a decade". A stand at the building of Orenburg's socio-political information centre containing Ryzhkov campaign material was destroyed. This came following two weeks of public protests against the election in Tatarstan. There was strong political opposition in Tatarstan to the election, as it was regarded as infringing upon Tatarstan's claim to sovereignty. As a consequence, turnout in Tatarstan was 36.6%. Meanwhile, the election for President of Tatarstan, which was held the same day, saw turnout surpassing 60%. A boycott of the election in Bashkortostan was encouraged by the newly founded group A Movement for a Sovereign Bashkortistan. The group was jointly formed by the Bashkir People's Party and the Tatar Democratic Party of the Bashkir ASSR. ==Debates==

Televised debates were held featuring some of candidates. Despite having originally agreed to participate in the debates, Yeltsin ultimately chose not to. ==Opinion polls==

Opinion polls indicated a strong likelihood of a Yelstin victory. On the day of the election, an analysis by The Times indicated that even the opinion polls that were the most pessimistic of Yeltsin's support still showed him garnering between 36% and 52% of the vote. Less pessimistic polls showed him garnering an even greater share of the vote. ==Results==

Yeltsin decisively won a majority of the vote in the first round of the election, thus forgoing the need for a second round. On 13 June, he was reported to have won the election by Soviet media. Vasilii Kazakov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission, confirmed Yeltsin's victory. Official results were certified on 19 June. His inauguration was held 10 July. ==Notes==