2012 Russian presidential election
The 2012 Russian presidential election was a presidential election. It occurred on 4 March 2012 in the Russian Federation.[1] The election was for an extended term of six years.
Incumbent president, Dmitry Medvedev, decided not to run for a second term.[2]
Vladimir Putin, from United Russia, easily won the election. He received 64% of the vote.[3][4]
Results
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vladimir Putin | 45,602,075 | 63.60% | |
| Gennady Zyuganov | 12,318,353 | 17.18% | |
| Mikhail Prokhorov | 5,722,508 | 7.98% | |
| Vladimir Zhirinovsky | 4,458,103 | 6.22% | |
| Sergey Mironov | 2,763,935 | 3.85% | |
| Total votes | 70,864,974 | 100% | |
Aftermath
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe gave an overall positive review of the election, but they did notice some issues.[5] They found that Putin was given more airtime than other candidates. There were also some cases of carousel voting (which is a type of electoral fraud where supporters drive to multiple polling stations and vote multiple times).[6] Ruža Tomašić, a OSCE observer from Croatia, noted that there were no violations at the five polling stations she observed.[7]A few days after the election, 15,000–20,000 people protested in Moscow against the results.[8] The Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not recognize the results.[9]
