Russia to elect its State Duma on December 4

According to the decree of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, signed on August 29, the elections of Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation will be held on December 4, 2011. This year, the parties' threshold barrier was brought down to 5 percent; while the term in office went up to 5 years. In parallel with the federal elections, the South of Russia – Ingushetia, Stavropol Territory and Astrakhan Region – will elect their regional parliaments.

Within the period from September 19 and October 19, parties should submit documents to the CEC (Central Election Commission) to register their electoral lists. The "Patriots of Russia", "Pravoye Delo" (Right Cause) and "Yabloko" will have to collect signatures, while the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia), CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia) and "Spraveldivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia) will not have to do it, under the legislation, because they are parliamentary parties already.

The CEC has 10 days for registering or rejecting the lists. Thus, on October 29, it will be clear what parties will be officially admitted to the elections and put on ballot papers.

"After we complete the registration process, within three days we'll define by a draw the order of placing parties on ballot papers," the "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" quotes Vladimir Churov, the CEC Chair, as saying.

The peculiarity of this year's elections is that 450 deputies will be elected on party lists for 5 years, not for 4 as before. In order to get to the Duma, parties will have to conquer the 7 percent barrier; however, the December elections also assume the so-called "floating barrier" – the parties, which will win at least 5 percent of votes, will get one or two MP seats. While four years ago 11 political parties were listed in the ballot paper, this time there will be no more than seven of them, the ITAR-TASS reports.