User:The Red Worlder/sandbox

The 2010 Soviet Union presidential election was the nation's first direct presidential election after the implementation of the 2008 Constitution. The election was held on October 25th and November 7th. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Sergei Yushenkov defeated Vladimir Putin by a solid margin and was elected as President of the Soviet Union.

Immediately after the ratification of his constitution, Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of state for the Soviet Union for over 25 years, announced his intention to retire. Gorbachev followed through on his promise and did not run for the 2010 election, despite being eligible for reelection. With his retirement, Gorbachev was the first head of state in Soviet history to willingly exit office alive. Gorbachev had created his own venue for political activism, Partiya Spravedlivosti (PS), well before the election. Despite representing Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Sovetskogo Soyuza (KPSS), the political party that dominated Soviet politics for over 86 years, Gorbachev had fallen out of favor with most of the party elites. However, Gorbachev easily facilitated his own political party through high electoral popularity. Gorbachev continued to represent the KPSS as before the 2008 constitution, the KPSS was the only permitted political party in Soviet elections. In a competitive primary that featured over 20 canidates, Sergei Yushenkov secured the party's presidential nomination over his closest rival, former member of the Central Committee Nikolai Rzyhkov. Yushenkov earned the nomination by emphasizing his relationship with Gorbachev, his actions in the 1995 December Coup, Rzyhkov's old age, and his work as an anti-corruption politician. The primary gave Yushenkov the most broadcast and internet exposure out of all the candidates, and was just as contentious and closely watched as the presidential election.

Gennady Zyuganov, regarded as Yushenkov's main competitor coming into the election, won the KPSS presidential nomination handily. Other major political parties selected their leader through a vote by the party members, as in Vladimir Putin's party, Partiya Yedinstva (PY). Yushenkov comfortably led first-round opinion polls in December 2009 and mid-June 2010 due to the highly-popular Gorbachev's endorsement, with Zyuganov of KPSS far behind in second place. Polls tightened considerably by late June; after the first state-mandated public debates took place. Vladimir Putin, a populist and socially conservative political outsider, outperformed Yushenkov and Zyuganov in the debates. Putin hammered Yushenkov and Zyuganov with questions over their support for LGBT issues and foreign policy stances, particularly surrounding China, respectively. Putin, with strong debate performances and support from the Christian Orthodox Church and older Soviets, overtook Zyuganov to place second in first-round polling. At the same time, Boris Kagarlitsky won the primary for Storozhevoy, a libertarian communist political alliance of progressive political parties, entering fourth place in the polls. Other candidates included writer Eduard Limonov of the NBS, nationalist State Duma member Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Ukrainian seperatist advocate and former boxer Vitali Klitschko, and various other ethnic separatist leaders.

In the first round on 25 October, Yushenkov, secured first place with 31.9% of votes. Putin came in second place with 17.4%, closely beating out Gennady Zyuganov of the ruling KPSS with 17.1% to advance to the runoff along with Yushenkov. In 4th place, Boris Kagarlitsky of Storozhevoy got 13.1%. In the weeks leading up to the election, Putin started to rise in the polls, coming as close as 0.5% behind Yushenkov. However, his rise was stopped by a strong debate performance from Yushenkov, who attacked Putin on claims of corruption, and his alleged lack of action as a KGB officer in the Leningrad Terror Attacks. Estimations of the result of the second round on 7 November indicated that Yushenkov had been elected by a decisive margin, by over 13% of the popular vote (despite underperforming his polling numbers). Putin conceded defeat after exit projections became available. At the time, this election provided the highest turnout out of any Soviet election in history. The elections were regarded as "free and fair" by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observers. Many international observers called this election the beginning of a new era of free and democratic politics in the Soviet Union. When Yushenkov took office on 25 December, he became the first head of state that wasn't a member of the KPSS in Soviet history. The presidential election was followed by the 2010 Soviet Union legislative election held on 18 December.

Background
   Further information: Soviet Union presidential election § Procedure

Article 6 of the 2008 Soviet Union Constitution states that for a person to serve as president, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the Soviet Union, be at least 30 years old, and have been a resident of the Soviet Union for at least 10 years. It is also necessary for candidates to be on an electoral roll, proving their eligibility to vote. The President of the Soviet Union is elected to a five-year term in a two-round election under Article 5 of the Constitution: if no candidate secures an absolute majority of votes in the first round, a second round is held two weeks later between the two candidates who received the most votes. The first and second rounds are held on 25 October and 7 November (respectively) to commemorate the Gregorian and Julian calendar dates of the October Revolution. In the first round, voters use ranked-choice voting under Article 5 of the Constitution.

Typically, people who wish to stand for president in the Soviet Union try to earn the nomination from a political party. Every party that wishes to gain funding from the state must choose a candidate through primary elections. Primary elections in the soviet union are direct elections where voters of the nation cast ballots for a particular candidate. The primary elections are closed in the Soviet Union, meaning only registered members of the party may be allowed to vote for a candidate. The party officially nominates a candidate to run on the party's behalf, based on their share of the popular vote. If no candidate had passed 30% of the vote in the primary election, designated party delegates chosen by the party leader will vote on the top 3 candidates. The presidential nominee then chooses a vice presidential running mate to form that party's ticket.

The Vysshiy Audiovizualʹnyy Sovet (VAS) ensures that all candidates receive equal time in broadcast media "under comparable programming conditions" from 1 February in the year of the election onward. The VAS warned on 21 February that the amount of speaking time broadcasters had given Yushenkov and his supporters was "unusually high", even given the high profile primary surrounding his candidacy. After the end of the primaries on May 9, the VAS strictly enforced equal time in broadcast media.

The new President of the Soviet Union was set to be proclaimed on 10 November and undergo their inauguration on 25 December.

Nominations
a

Party Changes
a

Results
The result was a third consecutive landslide victory for R. Q. Forde. He formed his third and final administration. The Conservative and Liberal Coalition formed the Official Opposition.