1993 Russian constitutional referendum

1993 Russian constitutional referendum
12 December 1993
Results
Choice
 Votes %
Yes 32,937,630 58.43%
No 23,431,333 41.57%
Valid votes 56,368,963 97.65%
Invalid or blank votes 1,357,909 2.35%
Total votes 57,726,872 100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 106,170,835 54.37%
Results by federal subject
Politics of Russia
Law
Presidency
Executive
Legislature
Federal Assembly
Judiciary
Elections
Federalism
Foreign relations
Related topics

A constitutional referendum was held in Russia on 12 December 1993.[1] The new constitution was approved by 58.4% of voters, and came into force on 25 December.[2]

Background

Since 1992, President Boris Yeltsin had been arguing that the 1978 constitution was obsolete and needed replacing.[3] He called for a new constitution which would grant more powers to the President.[3] However, two competing drafts of a new constitution were drawn up by the government and the Congress of People's Deputies.[3] Failure of the two groups to reach a compromise led to Yeltsin dissolving the Congress of People's Deputies in September 1993,[3] leading to a constitutional crisis.

Yeltsin then called a Constitutional Assembly that was sympathetic to his views.[3] The Assembly subsequently drafted a constitution that provided for a strong presidency,[3] and was published on 11 November.[4]

Name

This referendum was officially named "nationwide voting" (Russian: всенародное голосование, romanized: vsenarodnoye golosovaniye) in documents.

Раздел второй
Заключительные и переходные положения
1. Конституция Российской Федерации вступает в силу со дня официального ее опубликования по результатам всенародного голосования.

— 1993 Constitution of Russia

Translated:

Second Section
Concluding and Transitional Provisions
1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation shall come into force from the moment of its official publication according to the results of a nationwide voting.

Results

Choice Votes %
For 32,937,630 58.4
Against 23,431,333 41.6
Invalid/blank votes 1,357,909 –
Total 57,726,872 100
Registered voters/turnout 106,170,835 54.4
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Voter turnout was officially reported as 54.4%,[5] over the 50% threshold required to validate the referendum.[3] However, doubts remained over the accuracy of the turnout figure, exacerbated by the quick destruction of ballots and area tallies.[4]

By region

Margin of victory by region
Federal subject For Against Invalid/
blank 		Total Registered
voters 		Turnout
Votes % Votes %
1 Adygea 74,846 38.90 117,571 61.10 3157 195,574 323,612 60.43
2 Bashkortostan 721,769 42.01 996,135 57.99 52,113 1,770,017 2,824,125 62.67
3 Buryatia 204,779 57.96 148,547 42.04 15,479 368,805 663,957 55.55
4 Altai 43,629 55.97 34,316 44.03 2818 80,763 123,091 65.61
5 Dagestan 141,697 20.86 537,601 79.14 11,332 690,630 1,089,626 63.38
6 Ingushetia 37,583 56.90 28,469 43.10 877 66,929 124,754 53.65
7 Kabardino-Balkaria 185,214 63.26 107,553 36.74 5849 298,616 508,683 58.70
8 Kalmykia 57,258 51.52 53,880 48.48 6359 117,497 206,944 56.78
9 Karachay-Cherkessia 55,512 28.00 142,743 72.00 3353 201,608 286,579 70.35
10 Karelia 210,730 70.88 86,571 29.12 7760 305,061 577,618 52.81
11 Komi 239,180 63.77 135,893 36.23 9158 384,231 808,418 47.53
12 Mari 156,179 52.43 141,695 47.57 10,235 308,109 537,282 57.35
13 Mordovia 153,778 37.14 260,220 62.86 10,737 424,735 689,309 61.62
14 Yakutia 214,263 55.01 175,253 44.99 19,403 408,919 625,432 65.38
15 North Ossetia 132,202 53.09 116,801 46.91 7626 256,629 421,500 60.88
16 Tatarstan[a] 264,028 74.84 88,758 25.16 13,434 366,220 2,638,575 13.88
17 Tuva 31,310 31.21 68,999 68.79 4240 104,549 165,620 63.13
18 Udmurtia 301,026 57.45 222,912 42.55 16,452 540,390 1,134,009 47.65
19 Khakassia 99,737 58.47 70,839 41.53 5146 175,722 384,234 45.73
20 Chechnya[b] – – – – – – – –
21 Chuvashia 237,107 41.58 333,131 58.42 22,315 592,553 943,458 62.81
22 Altai Krai 524,005 51.17 499,969 48.83 22,039 1,046,013 1,929,497 54.21
23 Krasnodar Krai 970,838 51.16 926,925 48.84 34,229 1,931,992 3,546,775 54.47
24 Krasnoyarsk 653,489 61.84 403,173 38.16 23,596 1,080,258 2,117,784 51.01
25 Primorsky Krai 551,447 71.45 220,368 28.55 19,836 791,651 1,549,823 51.08
26 Stavropol Krai 607,825 54.15 514,693 45.85 18,948 1,141,466 1,809,146 63.09
27 Khabarovsk Krai 352,619 70.46 147,843 29.54 13,692 514,154 1,081,802 47.53
28 Amur 191,060 50.24 189,231 49.76 6811 387,102 670,701 57.72
29 Arkhangelsk 410,905 73.24 150,109 26.76 12,960 573,974 1,059,404 54.18
30 Astrakhan 208,298 58.48 147,914 41.52 8791 365,003 723,936 50.42
31 Belgorod 311,577 44.95 381,649 55.05 11,758 704,984 1,055,318 66.80
32 Bryansk 293,494 42.36 399,442 57.64 12,377 705,313 1,094,780 64.43
33 Vladimir 425,548 59.63 288,121 40.37 19,230 732,899 1,227,727 59.70
34 Volgograd 503,391 48.72 529,808 51.28 28,743 1,061,942 1,926,086 55.13
35 Vologda 393,088 69.84 169,761 30.16 13,633 576,482 974,026 59.19
36 Voronezh 502,358 45.16 610,006 54.84 19,293 1,131,657 1,922,595 58.86
37 Ivanovo 343,390 64.02 193,015 35.98 14,274 550,679 966,579 56.97
38 Irkutsk 621,676 74.16 216,571 25.84 17,947 856,194 1,767,955 48.43
39 Kaliningrad 251,575 66.33 127,711 33.67 8949 388,235 691,226 56.17
40 Kaluga 250,653 50.60 244,750 49.40 9896 505,299 806,958 62.62
41 Kamchatka 86,239 71.03 35,176 28.97 2574 123,989 286,983 43.20
42 Kemerovo 683,552 62.30 413,681 37.70 37,252 1,134,485 2,147,965 52.82
43 Kirov 412,671 61.38 259,682 38.62 19,851 692,204 1,199,823 57.69
44 Kostroma 201,711 58.00 146,048 42.00 7237 354,996 594,812 59.68
45 Kurgan 264,749 57.24 197,794 42.76 9186 471,729 780,223 60.46
46 Kursk 274,704 43.79 352,647 56.21 10,119 637,470 996,385 63.98
47 Leningrad 466,167 67.58 223,604 32.42 15,586 705,357 1,258,387 56.05
48 Lipetsk 229,086 42.38 311,525 57.62 12,352 552,963 923,922 59.85
49 Magadan 60,854 68.56 27,912 31.44 1732 90,498 186,780 48.45
50 Moscow 1,841,771 62.94 1,084,423 37.06 90,718 3,016,912 5,374,056 56.14
51 Murmansk 284,984 71.30 114,698 28.70 8824 408,506 806,705 50.64
52 Nizhny Novgorod 820,215 57.47 607,076 42.53 41,952 1,469,243 2,832,863 51.86
53 Novgorod 202,832 63.04 118,936 36.96 7709 329,477 559,612 58.88
54 Novosibirsk 509,592 51.52 479,479 48.48 23,205 1,012,276 2,005,969 50.46
55 Omsk 491,751 57.79 359,208 42.21 22,419 873,378 1,506,471 57.98
56 Orenburg 482,966 58.02 349,472 41.98 20,026 852,464 1,551,638 54.94
57 Oryol 186,463 42.61 251,090 57.39 7361 444,914 687,002 64.76
58 Penza 289,550 39.91 435,965 60.09 13,496 739,011 1,152,399 64.13
59 Perm 715,229 79.79 181,122 20.21 24,379 920,730 1,995,770 46.13
60 Pskov 241,283 56.96 182,353 43.04 6498 430,134 643,485 66.84
61 Rostov 929,506 51.50 875,503 48.50 41,588 1,846,597 3,236,960 57.05
62 Ryazan 327,812 50.58 320,304 49.42 13,465 661,581 1,019,518 64.89
63 Samara 705,425 56.87 534,884 43.13 33,205 1,273,514 2,424,184 52.53
64 Saratov 586,019 51.06 561,711 48.94 23,346 1,171,076 2,009,819 58.27
65 Sakhalin 147,406 63.96 83,052 36.04 5863 236,321 473,474 49.91
66 Sverdlovsk 1,299,299 79.84 327,990 20.16 38,543 1,665,832 3,426,954 48.61
67 Smolensk 236,097 42.82 315,289 57.18 9944 561,330 873,729 64.25
68 Tambov 257,133 41.99 355,301 58.01 13,331 625,765 977,867 63.99
69 Tver 387,026 51.34 366,841 48.66 16,657 770,524 1,239,450 62.17
70 Tomsk 217,624 68.45 100,308 31.55 9061 326,993 728,062 44.91
71 Tula 488,714 58.22 350,643 41.78 23,602 862,959 1,441,233 59.88
72 Tyumen 282,917 67.77 134,576 32.23 11,935 429,428 883,203 48.62
73 Ulyanovsk 314,216 51.16 299,926 48.84 14,056 628,198 1,059,023 59.32
74 Chelyabinsk 1,009,544 77.21 298,000 22.79 27,893 1,335,437 2,631,098 50.76
75 Chita 224,548 56.81 170,739 43.19 10,428 405,715 790,137 51.35
76 Yaroslavl 397,898 66.33 202,013 33.67 16,348 616,259 1,098,483 56.10
77 Moscow (City) 2,474,524 69.94 1,063,406 30.06 75,817 3,613,747 6,987,494 51.72
78 Saint Petersburg 1,391,887 71.61 551,765 28.39 28,408 1,972,060 3,760,852 52.44
79 Jewish AO 44,406 64.85 24,071 35.15 2152 70,629 137,038 51.54
80 Agin-Buryat AO 19,201 69.90 8,270 30.10 846 28,317 44,387 63.80
81 Komi-Permyak AO 46,432 81.44 10,580 18.56 1603 58,615 102,909 56.96
82 Koryakia 9,267 73.98 3,259 26.02 792 13,318 22,828 58.34
83 Nenets AO 13,338 74.41 4,587 25.59 554 18,479 31,470 58.72
84 Taymyr 13,815 81.80 3,074 18.20 507 17,396 29,411 59.15
85 Ust-Orda Buryat AO 45,577 80.89 10,764 19.11 996 57,337 82,871 69.19
86 Khanty-Mansi AO 253,458 81.84 56,224 18.16 5919 315,601 794,131 39.74
87 Chukotka 31,503 75.88 10,015 24.12 876 42,394 75,661 56.03
88 Evenkia 5,176 68.94 2,332 31.06 177 7685 13,863 55.44
89 Yamalo-Nenets AO 102,430 80.34 25,069 19.66 2676 130,175 284,532 45.75
Total 32,937,630 58.43 23,431,333 41.57 1,357,909 57,726,872 106,170,835 54.37
Source: Central Election Commission of Russia
  1. ^ Tatarstan authorities called on the population to boycott the popular vote (which resulted in an extremely low turnout), but did not interfere with his conduct
  2. ^ Chechen authorities prevented the holding of the popular vote in the republic.

References

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1642 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ The Constitution of Russia Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine President of Russia
  3. ^ a b c d e f g The Constitution and Government Structure Country Studies
  4. ^ a b Richard Sakwa (2008) Russian politics and society Taylor & Francis, p64
  5. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1648