Russians began to cast their ballots on Sunday to elect a new president. The following is a brief introduction to the system of the Russian presidential elections.
The Russian Federation approved its first post-independence constitution through a referendum on Dec. 12, 1993. The constitution, which entered into force on Dec. 25, 1993, stipulates that Russia adopts a federal state system with a presidential regime.
The constitution provides that the president shall be elected for a four-year term directly by eligible citizens.
Under the constitution, any Russian citizen, aged 35 years old and above and who has resided in Russia for no less than 10 years, can be elected president. The president cannot seek reelection after serving two terms in a row.
The Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, decides on election matters. Candidates can be nominated by voters or electoral bloc or group.
Candidates must report in writing his/her income and property to the Central Electoral Committee and collect enough valid signatures supporting his candidacy. The committee decides whether to ratify his/her candidacy.
According to the constitution, a candidate must gain more than 50 percent of the vote to win an outright victory. A run-off will be held three weeks later if none of the candidates wins more than50 percent in the first round. The two leading candidates in the first round will enter the run-off.
In the run-off, a candidate will win the race if he/she gets more votes than the other does and than the number of votes against both candidates.
The election will be declared invalid and a new election will be held if the voter turnout is less than 50 percent of registered voters, or the number of voters who choose "none of the above" on the list of candidates surpasses the number of voters who vote for the leading candidate, or there are only two candidates in the first round and neither of them wins more than half of the votes.
In another case, if candidates withdraw from the run-off on the voting day or no candidate wins the run-off, the Federation Council will also declare a new election.
In case of a new election, the candidates, whose behavior or inaction led to the invalidity of the previous election, cannot become candidates once more.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article