1999 Russian gubernatorial elections

1999 Russian gubernatorial elections

←  1998 25 April – 26 December 1999 2000  →
16 Heads of Federal Subjects from 89

Gubernatorial elections in 1999 took place in 16 regions of the Russian Federation.

In 1999, the tenures of the governors of 12 provinces, elected in 1995, expired. An early election was held in Leningrad Oblast, year after resignation of Vadim Gustov. The first direct elections for the Head of Karachay-Cherkessia also took place that year.

In the last two parliamentary republics, Dagestan and Udmurtia, direct elections have not come any closer: in Dagestan, the referendum on the introduction of the presidency was held in the summer of 1999, with the majority voting against; and in Udmurtia, a new State Council was elected and its chairman Alexander Volkov was re-elected.

Race summary

Federal Subject	Date	Incumbent		First elected	Losing candidates [1]	Governor-elect
Karachay-Cherkessia	25 April, 16 May		Vladimir Khubiyev	— [a]	Stanislav Derev, Mikhail Yakush (CPRF), Magomed Kaitov Vladimir Khubiyev, Boris Ebzeyev		Vladimir Semyonov
Belgorod Oblast	30 May		Yevgeny Savchenko	1995	Mikhail Beskhmelnitsyn, Vladimir Zhirinovsky (LDPR)		Yevgeny Savchenko (NDR)
Sverdlovsk Oblast	29 August, 12 September		Eduard Rossel	1995	Alexander Burkov (May), Arkady Chernetsky (NDNG), Vladimir Kadochnikov (CPRF), Igor Kovpak		Eduard Rossel (PU, supported by NDR)
Novgorod Oblast	5 September		Mikhail Prusak	1995	Anatoly Peshkov, Alexander Demanov (LDPR)		Mikhail Prusak
Omsk Oblast	5 September		Leonid Polezhayev	1995	Alexander Kravets (CPRF), Alexander Zakharov		Leonid Polezhayev
Leningrad Oblast	19 September		Valery Serdyukov	— [b]	Vadim Gustov, Valery Kovalyov, Viktor Zubkov, Damir Shadaev		Valery Serdyukov
Tomsk Oblast	19 September		Viktor Kress	1995	Alexander Deyev, Anatoly Chemeris		Viktor Kress
Moscow	19 December		Yury Luzhkov	1996 [c]	Sergey Kiriyenko (SPS), Pavel Borodin, Yevgeny Martynov, Dmitry Vasilyev (NPF Memory), Aleksey Mitrofanov (LDPR)		Yury Luzhkov (OVR)
Primorsky Krai	19 December		Yevgeny Nazdratenko	1995	Alexander Kirilichev, Vladimir Vedernikov		Yevgeny Nazdratenko
Vologda Oblast	19 December		Vyacheslav Pozgalyov	1995	Sergey Karonnov (SPS)		Vyacheslav Pozgalyov
Moscow Oblast	19 December, 9 January 2000		Anatoly Tyazhlov	1995	Gennady Seleznyov (CPRF), Alexander Tikhonov, Anatoly Tyazhlov, Boris Fyodorov, Vladimir Bryntsalov		Boris Gromov (OVR)
Novosibirsk Oblast	19 December, 9 January 2000		Vitaly Mukha	1995	Ivan Starikov (DVR), Vitaly Mukha, Viktor Kuznetsov (CPRF), Ivan Indinok, Yevgeny Loginov (LDPR)		Viktor Tolokonsky
Orenburg Oblast	19 & 26 December		Vladimir Yelagin	1995	Vladimir Yelagin, Pavel Gurkalov, Gennady Donkovtsev		Alexey Chernyshyov (APR)
Tambov Oblast	19 & 26 December		Aleksandr Ryabov	1995	Aleksandr Ryabov (CPRF), Andrey Frantz (May)		Oleg Betin (supported by NDR and Unity)
Tver Oblast	19 December, 9 January 2000		Vladimir Platov	1995	Vladimir Bayunov (CPRF), Gennady Vinogradov, Anatoly Kleymyonov, Viktor Opekunov (OVR)		Vladimir Platov
Yaroslavl Oblast	19 December		Anatoly Lisitsyn	1995	Sergey Vakhrukov (Yabloko), Vladimir Kornilov (CPRF)		Anatoly Lisitsyn

Karachay-Cherkessia

In April and May 1999, elections were held for the head of Karachay-Cherkessia. The mayor of Cherkessk Stanislav Derev received 43.1% of the vote in the first round, surpassing former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces general Vladimir Semyonov, with 17.9% of the vote. After the first round, confrontation started to arise between the frontrunners. The rivalry of Semyonov and Derev was viewed as a confrontation between the Karachays and Circassians.

On the morning of May 16, the roads to areas with Karachay majority or mixed Karachay-Russian population were blocked by the police and OMON. By Derev's order, more than 60 polling stations were closed in Cherkessk, although later, through the efforts of the CEC, voting began in most of them. Semyonov received 75.5% of the vote, with about 18.6% for Derev. After the second round, Derev's supporters organized a rally in the center of Cherkessk, demanding the annulling of the falsified election results. ^[2]

On May 19, after negotiations in Moscow, Derev stated that he was demanding either the cancellation of the election results, or the secession of Cherkessia. At the same time, he applied to the Supreme Court of Russia and the Central Election Commission with a request to cancel the results of the second round. On May 24, after the visit of the Prime Minister of Russia Sergey Stepashin to Cherkessk, the head of Karachay-Cherkessia Vladimir Khubiyev resigned. Igor Ivanov, chairman of the People's Assembly of Karachay-Cherkessia, was appointed as the interim head of the region.

In July, the Supreme Court of the KChR recognized the results of the elections; later, this decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of Russia. In late August 1999, the republican court reaffirmed the results of the vote on May 16. On September 14, Semyonov took office as head of the republic, which marked the end of the conflict. ^[3]

Sverdlovsk Oblast

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Eduard Rossel	Transformation of Ural	542,257	39.73	813,373	64.27
	Alexander Burkov	Workers' Movement for Social Guarantees "May"	256,916	18.83	364,301	28.79
	Arkady Chernetsky	Our Home — Our City	216,738	15.88
	Vladimir Kadochnikov	Communist Party	134,607	9.86
	Igor Kovpak	Independent	122,948	9.01
	Irina Belkova	Independent	15,401	1.13
	Andrey Selivanov	Right Cause	8,628	0.63
Against all			67,260	4.93	87,862	6.94
Total			1,364,755	100.00	1,265,536	100.00
Source: IKSO [4] [5]

Moscow City

In June 1999 the Moscow City Duma decided to move the 2000 mayoral election six months ahead of schedule. The new voting day was set on 19 December 1999, when the elections to the 3rd State Duma of Russia were to take place.

On September 17, the incumbent mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov officially announced his intention to run for re-election, naming Valery Shantsev as his candidate for the vice mayor. Opposition, represented by the Union of Right Forces, nominated former prime minister of Russia Sergey Kiriyenko. ^[6] Luzhkov surpassed him by more than 58%. Two thirds of the voters came to the polling stations in Moscow on December 19.

Candidate		Running mate	Party	Votes	%
	Yury Luzhkov	Valery Shantsev	Fatherland – All Russia	3,174,658	71.45
	Sergey Kiriyenko	Vyacheslav Glazychev	Union of Right Forces	510,958	11.50
	Pavel Borodin	Leonid Troshin	Independent	273,026	6.14
	Yevgeny Martynov	Sergey Seryogin	Communist Party	128,404	2.89
	Dmitry Vasilyev	Alexander Netesov	Pamyat	47,067	1.06
	Aleksey Mitrofanov	Andrey Brezhnev	Independent	27,528	0.62
	Vladimir Voronin	Svetlana Savinova	Independent	18,564	0.42
	Vladimir Kiselyov	Valery Kireyev	Independent	8,944	0.20
Against all				254,013	5.72
Total				4,443,162	100.00
Valid votes				4,443,162	97.82
Invalid/blank votes				98,974	2.18
Total votes				4,542,136	100.00
Source: Zakon [7]

Moscow Oblast

Gubernatorial election in Moscow Oblast was held on 19 December 1999, in parallel with the federal legislative election. The peculiarity of this campaign was that the candidates for the governor were running along with the candidates for the vice-governor (this office will be abolished in 2002). ^[8] The Fatherland – All Russia party (OVR), realizing low chances to win for incumbent governor Anatoly Tyazhlov, authorized the nomination of Soviet Army general Boris Gromov. That is, OVR had two candidates for governor at once. ^[9] On 9 January 2000, Boris Gromov was elected governor of Moscow Oblast in the second round of the election.

Candidate		Running mate	Party	First round		Second round
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Gennadiy Seleznyov	Vladimir Kashin	Communist Party	908,874	27.52		46.39
	Boris Gromov	Mikhail Men	Fatherland – All Russia	690,352	20.91		48.09
	Alexander Tikhonov	Sergey Selivyorstov	Independent	494,231	15.12
	Anatoly Tyazhlov	Vasily Golubev	Fatherland – All Russia	346,947	10.51
	Boris Fyodorov	Alexander Lebedev	Forward, Russia!	302,081	9.15
	Vladimir Bryntsalov	Vladimir Alexeyev	Independent		5.02
	Anatoly Dolgolaptev	Vladimir Menshov	Independent		1.38
	Sergey Popov	Ilshat Safargaliyev	Independent		1.19
	Vladimir Klimenko	Yury Tebin	Independent		1.13
Against all				196,779	5.96
Total
Source: [10] [11]

Notes

1. Appointed by federal president in 1992, re-appointed in 1995.
2. Acting governor, installed after resignation of Vadim Gustov.
3. Elected as vice mayor for Gavriil Popov in 1991.

References

1. Gubernatorial elections — 1999, politika.su
2. Elections of the head of Karachay-Cherkessia: from political confrontation to interethnic conflict, "International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies"
3. Karachay-Cherkess Republic: Chronicle of confrontation, "International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies"
4. Election of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast on 28 August 1999, Bulletin of territorial election commissions of Sverdlovsk Oblast
5. Re-voting on election of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast on 12 September 1999, Bulletin of territorial election commissions of Sverdlovsk Oblast
6. "Election of the mayor of Moscow is scheduled for December 7". 2003-09-08.
7. "РЕШЕНИЕ МОСГОРИЗБИРКОМА ОТ 22.12.1999 N 35/5 О ТЕКСТЕ СООБЩЕНИЯ МОСКОВСКОЙ ГОРОДСКОЙ ИЗБИРАТЕЛЬНОЙ КОМИССИИ ОБ ИТОГАХ ВЫБОРОВ МЭРА И ВИЦЕ МЭРА МОСКВЫ". Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2014-07-24.
8. "Вице-губернатор Московской области ушел в отставку" [Vice Governor of Moscow Oblast resigned]. Kommersant (in Russian). 2002-11-01.
9. Иванов, В.В. (2019). Глава субъекта Российской Федерации. История губернаторов[Head of the subject of the Russian Federation. History of governors] (in Russian). p. 584. ISBN   978-5-907250-14-7.
10. "Обнародованы итоги выборов губернатора Московской области" [The results of the elections of the Governor of Moscow Oblast were announced] (in Russian). 1999-12-23. Archived from the original on 2009-02-11.
11. "История выборов и назначений губернатора Московской области" [History of elections and appointments of the Governor of Moscow Oblast]. TASS (in Russian). 2013-09-07.