1998 Russian gubernatorial elections

1998 Russian gubernatorial elections

←  1997 18 January – 21 June 1998 1999  →
10 Heads of Federal Subjects from 89

Gubernatorial elections in 1998 took place in ten regions of the Russian Federation.

Overview

1998 saw the re-election of the heads of administrations of the "first wave" elected in April 1993 in Lipetsk, Penza and Smolensk Oblasts and Krasnoyarsk Krai, as well as the presidents of Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Ingushetia and North Ossetia and the chairman of the government of Karelia. For the first time, direct elections were held in Mordovia. The transition to a presidential system was discussed in the last two parliamentary republics, Dagestan and Udmurtia. In Dagestan, on June 25, the Chairman of the State Council Magomedali Magomedov was re-elected for a new term by the Constitutional Assembly, same as in 1994. In Udmurtia, members of the State Council constantly rejected bills on direct elections introduction, proposed by the Council's speaker. ^[1]

Race summary

Federal Subject [1]	Date	Incumbent	First elected	Candidates	Result
North Ossetia	18 January	Akhsarbek Galazov	1994	Y Alexander Dzasokhov 77% Akhsarbek Galazov (NDR) 10%	Incumbent lost re-election. New president elected.
Mordovia	15 February	Nikolay Merkushkin	1995 (indirect)	Y Nikolay Merkushkin 90.78%	Incumbent re-elected.
Ingushetia [2]	1 March	Ruslan Aushev	1993	Y Ruslan Aushev 66.5% Issa Kostoyev 13.3% Mukharbek Aushev 9.1%	Incumbent re-elected.
Lipetsk Oblast [3]	12 April	Mikhail Narolin	1993	Y Oleg Korolyov 79.52% Mikhail Narolin (NDR) 13.81%	Incumbent lost re-election. New governor elected.
Penza Oblast [4]	12 April	Anatoly Kovlyagin	1993	Y Vasily Bochkaryov 61.34% Yury Lyzhin (CPRF) 16.46% Anatoly Kovlyagin (NDR) 13.09% Aleksandr Kalashnikov 5.32%	Incumbent lost re-election. New governor elected.
Karelia [5] [6]	26 April (first round)	Viktor Stepanov	1994	Sergey Katanandov 37.78% Viktor Stepanov 35.07% Aleksandr Chazhengin 8.62%	Incumbent lost re-election. New premier elected.
	17 May (runoff)			Y Sergey Katanandov 49.48% Viktor Stepanov 43.16%
Krasnoyarsk Krai	26 April (first round)	Valery Zubov	1993	Alexander Lebed 46% Valery Zubov (NDR) 35% Pyotr Romanov (CPRF) 13%	Incumbent lost re-election. New governor elected.
	17 May (runoff)			Y Alexander Lebed 57.22% Valery Zubov (NDR) 38.27%
Smolensk Oblast [7]	26 April (first round)	Anatoly Glushenkov	1993	Aleksandr Prokhorov 46.5% Anatoly Glushenkov (NDR) 26.9% Boris Reva 10%	Incumbent lost re-election. New governor elected.
	17 May (runoff)			Y Aleksandr Prokhorov 67.39% Anatoly Glushenkov (NDR) 26.49%
Bashkortostan	14 June	Murtaza Rakhimov	1993	Y Murtaza Rakhimov 70.2% Rif Kazakkulov 9%	Incumbent re-elected.
Buryatia	21 June	Leonid Potapov	1994	Y Leonid Potapov (CPRF) 63.25% Vladimir Saganov 6.5% Bato Ochirov 5.7% Valery Shapovalov 5.5%	Incumbent re-elected.

References

1. Gubernatorial elections — 1998, politika.su
2. Presidential elections 1 March 1998
3. Biograpgy of O.P. Korolyov, TASS' encyclopedia
4. "Архив выборов и референдумов". Penza Oblast Election Commission (in Russian). Retrieved 12 October 2025.
5. "Republic of Karelia". Kommersant (in Russian). 23 April 2002.
6. Results
7. Smolensk Oblast in October 1998, International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies