The 1996 presidential election was one of the most resonant political campaigns in the history of modern Russia. These were the only presidential elections when the winner could not be determined without a second vote. The campaign itself was characterized by a tough political struggle between the candidates. The main contenders for the victory were the future president of the country Boris Yeltsin and the leader of the Communists Gennady Zyuganov.
The situation before the election
Presidential elections in 1996 were appointed by the Federation Council in December 95th. Elections were scheduled for June 16th. This happened literally on the eve of the end of the State Duma elections. They won the Communist Party, gaining 22% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats took second place, the movement "Our Home - Russia", which supported Yeltsin, finished third with only 10% of the vote.
By 1996, there was no trace of Yeltsin's popularity. In 1991, he won a landslide victory, gaining more than 57%. After 5 years, the people were dejected by the economic failures of the government’s reforms, the protracted Chechen war, which brought a large number of victims, by corruption scandals in the highest echelons of power. According to surveys, the president’s popularity was only 8–9%.
Signature Collection
In the 1996 presidential election, it was necessary to collect one million signatures in order for the candidate to register with the CEC. Interestingly, the consent of the politician himself was not required for this. Therefore, subscription campaigns started in the New Year’s area, while Yeltsin himself officially announced his nomination only in mid-February. Then it became known that the Communist Party in the presidential election in Russia in 1996 will represent Zyuganov.
At that time, the advantage of the Communist leader was obvious. They say that at the economic forum in Davos he was greeted as a likely favorite of the race.
In March, Yeltsin was to make a choice how to campaign for the 1996 presidential election. It was possible to give everything to the headquarters, which included officials and politicians, to cancel the elections and declare a state of emergency in the country, which some close associates advised, or to accept the offer of a number of large businessmen who proposed to entrust the entire campaign to political strategists in a Western fashion. Yeltsin went the third way.
A so-called Analytical Group was formed, led by Chubais. Large-scale studies were conducted, with the help of which it was possible to find out the most painful points of Russian society. Based on this study, the 1996 presidential election campaign was conducted by the Yeltsin headquarters.
Presidential candidates
Initially, 78 initiative groups announced their intention to run. But only 16 of them managed to collect the necessary one million signatures. Some refused to be nominated, as the head of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Boris Nemtsov, several people supported other candidates, like the right-wing politician Nikolai Lysenko, who called on supporters to vote for Zyuganov.
During the verification of the collected signatures by the CEC, seven were refused registration, two were able to prove their case in the Supreme Court. As a result, 11 candidates appeared on the ballot papers for the 1996 presidential election.
These were:
- Entrepreneur Vladimir Bryntsalov, nominated by the Russian Socialist Party. Initially, he was denied registration, but he managed to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.
- Writer Yuri Vlasov from the People's Patriotic Party.
- The last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, who went as an independent candidate.
- The current president, Boris Yeltsin, is also an independent candidate.
- State Duma deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky from the Liberal Democratic Party.
- State Duma deputy Gennady Zyuganov from the Communist Party.
- State Duma deputy Alexander Lebed from the Congress of Russian Communities.
- Ophthalmologist and State Duma deputy Svyatoslav Fedorov from the Party of Workers' Self-Government.
- Reform Fund Director Martin Shakoum. This independent candidate, like Bryntsalov, was able to appeal the denial of registration to the Supreme Court.
- State Duma deputy Grigory Yavlinsky from the Yabloko party.
Another candidate, the head of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, at the last moment withdrew his candidacy in favor of Zyuganov.
Election campaigning
One of the most striking events in Russian history was campaigning before the 1996 presidential election. Yeltsin’s entourage launched the “Vote or lose” campaign, the president traveled around the country a lot, despite health problems and participated in a large number of events.
The newspaper “God forbid!” Became a famous newspaper. It was published in a circulation of several million copies and was distributed free of charge. It criticized Zyuganov, frightening citizens with a likely Civil War in case of victory, mass arrests and executions, hunger. In publications Zyuganov was often compared with Hitler.
Following the results of sociological research, the stake was made on the population of large cities, youth and the intelligentsia. A positive aspect was the recognition by the incumbent president of his mistakes. Yeltsin eventually kept his promise to cease hostilities in Chechnya in the near future.
First tour
In the first round, the turnout for the 1996 presidential election in Russia was very high. They were attended by 75,587,139 Russians, which is almost 70% of the country's population.
According to the results of the vote, 5 candidates at once failed to get even 1% of the vote, losing the column “Against all” (1.54%) and even to the number of ballots declared invalid (1.43%). The worst result was demonstrated by Vladimir Bryntsalov, for whom 123,065 people voted. The company was made up of Yuri Vlasov (0.2%), Martin Shakkum (0.37%), Mikhail Gorbachev (0.51%), Svyatoslav Fedorov (0.92%).
Fifth place was taken by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, more than 4 million Russians (5.7%) voted for him, Grigory Yavlinsky (7.34%) was in fourth place, and Alexander Lebed (14.52%) in third.
It was not possible to determine the winner in the first round. None of the candidates won more than half of the votes in the 1996 presidential election. Gennady Zyuganov received only 32.03%, and Boris Yeltsin won a sensational victory with 35.28% of the vote.
As it turned out, the Yeltsin team made the right bet. It was mainly supported by residents of two capitals, as well as industrial centers of Siberia, the North of Russia, the Far East and some national republics. Zyuganov was voted for in depressed agricultural regions of the Black Earth Region, Central Russia and the Volga Region. Swan unexpectedly won in the Yaroslavl region.
Preparation for the second round
The second round was scheduled for Wednesday, July 3, 1996. It was declared a day off, everything was done in order to increase the turnout of people. Experts believed that Yeltsin had more potential supporters, but they, unlike the communists, were less active, so increasing the turnout was in the hands of the current president.
There was a split at Yeltsin’s headquarters itself. Chubais and a group of oligarchs were determined to achieve victory in the second round, and the security forces, represented by the head of the presidential security service, Alexander Korzhakov, proposed postponing the second round or canceling the election altogether. The situation was aggravated due to a heart attack that happened in Yeltsin. Obviously, this was the result of a tense campaign.
Swan Support
General Lebed, who in the first round received almost 15% of the vote, became the owner of a decisive resource. It became clear that the one whom his supporters would support would win.
Soon after the official summing up of the results of the first round, Yeltsin appointed Lebed to a high post. He becomes Secretary of the Security Council, after which he formally called on his supporters to vote for the incumbent. This predetermined the outcome of the struggle.
Election results
Voters were also very active in the second round; more than 68% of Russians came to the polls.
As a result, Boris Yeltsin received the votes of more than 40 million residents (53.82%), which turned out to be significantly more than that of Zyuganov - 40.31%. More than three and a half million Russians voted against both candidates.
Yeltsin was elected for a second term. His official inauguration took place on August 9, 1996.