Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) 16 adopted on first reading a bill of Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 1 this year, about the recovery of the State Duma mixed electoral system.
According to reports, the bill only less than 226 Members for their support in order to get through the day, a total of 296 members voted in favor of the bill, and another 148 people expressed opposition, as well as 1 abstained from voting.
The Act, the State Duma elections in the future will adopt a mixed electoral system, half of the seats in accordance with the political parties "proportional representation" election, a total of 450 seats in the State Duma, the other half elected in single seat constituencies, established in the country of 225 constituencies, each generating a member. The political parties to enter the State Duma of the vote threshold from the current 7% to 5%. The Act also prohibits several alliance of political parties to participate in the elections.
Act, personages without party affiliation can be included in the list of candidates recommended by the various parties, personages without party affiliation proportion of candidates, however, can not exceed half of the total number of candidates. The political parties can not recommend the other members of political parties and self-referral as a candidate. "Single-seat constituency candidates would include not only the candidates recommended by the various political parties, will also include self-referral.
Russian State Duma elections approach has been modified. During the ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian State Duma elections had to implement a mixed electoral system. According to the 2005 bill passed by the State Duma elections instead of proportional representation. Two State Duma elections in 2007 and 2011 are used in the system of proportional representation. Last December, Russian President Vladimir Putin in the annual State of the Union address to the parliament proposes to restore the the State Duma mixed electoral system. Russian experts pointed out that the recovery of the mixed electoral system is designed to enhance the atmosphere of competition between the political parties, to create favorable conditions through self-referral program for the general public to participate in elections.