Народ избрал президента.

In Russian, народ is a singular collective noun. It refers to a people, a nation, or the population as a whole, so it often corresponds to English the people even though the grammar is singular.

That is why the verb is also singular:

• народ избрал = the people elected
• not народ избрали

If you wanted to talk about individual persons rather than the population as a whole, you would more often use люди.

Избрал is the perfective past form of избрать, meaning the action is viewed as completed: the election happened and produced a result.

• избрал = elected / chose as a completed event
• избирал = was electing / used to elect / elected repeatedly, depending on context

In a simple statement about the result of an election, Russian normally uses the perfective form:

• Народ избрал президента. = The people elected the president.

That is the normal marker of the past tense in Russian.

For most verbs, the past tense is built from the infinitive stem plus -л, and then it agrees in gender and number:

• masculine: избрал
• feminine: избрала
• neuter: избрало
• plural: избрали

Here the subject is народ, which is grammatically masculine singular, so the verb is избрал.

Because президента is in the accusative case, since it is the direct object of the verb избрал.

Russian marks many objects with case endings. With animate masculine nouns, the accusative singular usually looks like the genitive singular:

• nominative: президент
• accusative: президента

So:

• Президент избрал народ. = The president elected the people (grammatically odd, but case-wise possible)
• Народ избрал президента. = The people elected the president

You know from the sentence structure and the verb.

The verb избрать normally takes a direct object, so after it you expect the accusative. Since президент is an animate masculine noun, its accusative singular is identical to its genitive singular: президента.

So the form itself can look ambiguous, but in this sentence it is clearly the object of избрал, so it is accusative.

Russian has no articles like English a or the.

So:

• народ can mean the people or just people/the nation, depending on context
• президента can mean the president or a president, though in this sentence the president is the natural translation

Russian relies on context, word order, and general meaning rather than articles.

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible because case endings show grammatical roles.

All of these can mean basically the same thing:

• Народ избрал президента.
• Президента избрал народ.
• Избрал народ президента. (less neutral, more stylistically marked)

But the word order affects emphasis and information structure:

• Народ избрал президента. = neutral
• Президента избрал народ. = emphasizes the president
• Народ президента избрал. = can emphasize the fact of electing him

So the default, neutral order is the one you were given.

The stress is:

• наро́д
• избра́л
• президе́нта

So the full sentence is pronounced:

наро́д избра́л президе́нта

Stress is important in Russian because it is not always predictable and can affect pronunciation of vowels.

Sometimes, but not with exactly the same meaning.

• народ = the people, the nation, the population as a collective
• люди = people as individual human beings

In a political or historical statement like The people elected the president, народ is very natural because it sounds collective and civic. Люди избрали президента is possible, but it feels less formal and less like a statement about the nation or electorate.

Yes, народ is grammatically masculine singular.

That is why related words agree with it in masculine singular form:

• русский народ
• народ избрал
• великий народ

Even though the meaning refers to many people, the grammar stays singular.

The infinitive is избрать.

This is a perfective verb. Its imperfective partner is usually избирать.

So the pair is:

• избирать = imperfective
• избрать = perfective

And in the past tense:

• избирал = was electing / used to elect
• избрал = elected, completed

Because Russian verbs in the past tense already combine naturally with an explicit noun subject, and the noun itself is enough:

• Народ избрал президента.

There is no need to add a separate word like English sometimes does with it or they. The noun народ is the full subject, and the verb agrees with it in masculine singular.