Indirect Elections

a system of elections under which deputies of a representative body or a head of state are elected not directly by the voters but through “electors.” The president of the United States, for example, is elected by indirect election.

In the USSR before the adoption of the Constitution of 1936, higher bodies of state power were elected through indirect elections. For example, deputies to a congress of Soviets of the USSR were elected at provincial congresses of Soviets and, in those Union republics where there were no provincial associations, at republic-level congresses of Soviets.