2002 Russian gubernatorial elections

2002 Russian gubernatorial elections

13 January – 27 October 2002
12 Heads of Federal Subjects from 89

Gubernatorial elections in 2002 took place in twelve regions of the Russian Federation.

Race summary

Federal Subject	Date	Incumbent	First elected	Candidates
Adygea	13 January	Aslan Dzharimov	1992	Y Khazret Sovmen 68.89% Aslan Dzharimov 10.15% Nina Konovalova 9.46% Mikhail Chernichenko 4.39% Aslan Tkhakushinov 2.06%
Kabardino-Balkaria	13 January	Valery Kokov	1992	Y Valery Kokov 87.18% Mukhamed Batyrov 8.39%
North Ossetia	27 January	Alexander Dzasokhov	1998	Y Alexander Dzasokhov 56.05% Stanislav Suanov 29.07%
Tuva	17 March	Sherig-ool Oorzhak	1992	Y Sherig-ool Oorzhak 53.54% Sholban Kara-ool 29.07%
Ingushetia	7 & 28 April	Akhmed Malsagov (interim)		Y Murat Zyazikov 19.11% / 53.13% Alikhan Amirkhanov 33.09% / 43.19% Mukharbek Aushev 17.04% Akhmed Malsagov 13.56%
Lipetsk Oblast	14 April	Oleg Korolyov	1998	Y Oleg Korolyov 73.06% Igor Polosin 5.13%
Penza Oblast	14 April	Vasily Bochkaryov	1998	Y Vasily Bochkaryov 45.45% Viktor Ilyukhin (CPRF) 40.95%
Karelia	28 April	Sergey Katanandov	1998	Y Sergey Katanandov 53.45% Artur Myaki (SPS) 14.05%
Smolensk Oblast	19 May	Aleksandr Prokhorov	1998	Y Viktor Maslov 40.51% Aleksandr Prokhorov 34.40% Ivan Averchenkov 8.57% Valery Fateyev 3.05%
Buryatia	23 June	Leonid Potapov (CPRF)	1994	Y Leonid Potapov 68.79% Bato Semyonov (UR) 23,50%
Krasnoyarsk Krai	8 & 22 September	Nikolay Ashlapov (interim)		Y Alexander Khloponin 25.25% / 48.07% Aleksandr Uss 27.62% / 41.83% Sergey Glazyev 21.44% Pyotr Pimashkov 14.30%
Kalmykia	20 & 27 October	Kirsan Ilyumzhinov	1993	Y Kirsan Ilyumzhinov 47.06% / 57.21% Baatr Shondzhiyev 13.61% / 38.04%

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Background

From June 1998, Alexander Lebed was the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai. On 22 April 2002 he died in a helicopter crash. Nikolay Ashlapov became interim governor until the new gubernatorial elections were held in September 2002.

A total of 32 people submitted documents, 16 of them were registered. Later, the Head of Khakassia and the brother of the late governor, Alexei Lebed, withdrew and another candidate was removed from the ballot by the election authorities. Thus, 14 candidates participated in the elections.

The elections were held in two rounds. In the first round, none of the candidates managed to gain more than 50% of the vote. Alexander Uss came the first, gaining 27.6% of the votes, Alexander Khloponin was second with 25%. Sergei Glazyev and Pyotr Pimashkov received fewer votes and did not qualify for the second round.

Results

First round of Krasnoyarsk Krai election:
Uss (green), Khloponin (blue), Glazyev (red), Pimashkov (yellow)

Candidate	First round		Second round
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Aleksandr Uss	286,882	27.92	431,924	42.23
Alexander Khloponin	262,251	25.52	496,415	48.53
Sergey Glazyev	222,650	21.67
Pyotr Pimashkov	148,517	14.45
Artyom Tarasov	29,010	2.82
Igor Zakharov	10,138	0.99
Anatoly Gridyushkin	6,151	0.60
Aleftina Makovoz	2,492	0.24
Igor Priymak	1,687	0.16
Oleg Ulyanov	1,678	0.16
Andrey Zberovsky	1,501	0.15
Vladimir Yurchenko	1,279	0.12
German Sterligov	1,006	0.10
Vasily Zhurko	529	0.05
Against all	51,847	5.05	94,469	9.24
Total	1,027,618	100.00	1,022,808	100.00
Valid votes	1,027,618	98.95	1,022,808	99.05
Invalid/blank votes	10,869	1.05	9,818	0.95
Total votes	1,038,487	100.00	1,032,626	100.00
Registered voters/turnout	2,202,219	47.16	2,207,960	46.77

Aftermath

On 29 September 2002, a week after the second round, the electoral commission of Krasnoyarsk Krai declared elections invalid following numerous complaints from the headquarters of the losing candidate Alexander Uss. The commission considered that the free vote was impeded by the use of administrative resources by candidates, bribery and deception of voters, spread of fake agitation materials and spending the campaign funds for another purposes. It was also announced at the meeting that it is not possible to determine the vote of about 200,000 people.

Alexander Uss said that for him "the election is over" and he does not intend to participate in re-vote, scheduled in March 2003, he is not going to go to court and advises Khloponin to do the same. Uss also stated that "it is high time to stop electing governors by open ballot and henceforth appoint them directly from the Kremlin". On the same day, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, came up with a similar idea, even saying that LDPR was recalling their representative from the Central Election Commission, stating that the entire Russian electoral system is so rotten that a decent person will no longer get involved with it.

On 1 October the court ruled that the decision of the regional electoral commission to annul the results was unauthorized and, in fact, officially recognized that Khloponin became the winner. Two days later, the regional election commission complied with the court's decision, however, filing a cassation appeal against it. On the same day, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree, appointing Khloponin the acting governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai. His inauguration was held on October 17. Month later, on November 19, 2002, the Supreme Court of Russia rejected the cassation appeal of the election commission of Krasnoyarsk Krai and confirmed the legality of the election of Alexander Khloponin as the governor.