2024-02-08 10:18:17
The only candidate who advocated peace with Ukraine will finally not be able to run in the presidential elections that will be held on March 15, 16 and 17 in Russia. Veteran politician Boris Nadezhdin announced this Thursday that the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) had refused to register him to run in the elections and face the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, whose re-election is more than certain.
Before announcing what happened in a Telegram message, the Commission explained that it had found too many null signatures among the 105,000 that Nadezhdin’s team presented on January 31.
More than 9,000 signatures declared invalid
Every candidate who runs for election without a party behind them with representation in Parliament must collect a certain number of endorsements. Those, like Nadezhdin, who have extra-parliamentary political training (Civic Initiative) had to present 100,000 valid endorsements.
Of the signatures supporting Nadezhdin, the Electoral Commission declared 9,147 invalid. That represents more than 5% allowed to register the candidate.
After learning this information, the politician proposed to the CEC to postpone the decision on his registration. But its president, Ella Pamfilova, explained that the body is obliged to move forward and cannot adapt to the needs of a particular candidate. The official deadline to accept or reject candidates’ registration is February 10.
“The most important decision of my life”
The already rejected candidate showed his disagreement with the decision on his Telegram channel. “I do not agree with the decision of the Electoral Commission (…) I will appeal to the Supreme Court of Russia,” he promised.
“I have collected more than 200,000 signatures throughout Russia. We have done the collection in an open and honest way: the queues at our offices and collection points were seen all over the world,” he explained. “Taking part in the 2024 presidential elections is the most important political decision of my life. I am not going to give up my intentions.”
On the same day, the Commission also denied registration as a candidate to Sergei Malikovich, a candidate for the Communists of Russia party, a small party that split from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 2012.
Four candidates, including Putin
When 60,000 signatures had been verified, officials certified that there were 8,979 invalid signatures, already exceeding the 5% allowed. Pamfilova said the decision “was made unanimously.”
At the moment, the Russian Electoral Commission has registered four presidential candidates for next month’s presidential elections. Leonid Slutski, leader of the nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party; Nikolai Kharitonov, for the Communist Party; and Vladislav Davankov, from Gente Nueva, did not have to present signatures of support because they are supported by their parties, with parliamentary representation.
The fourth is Vladimir Putin. The Russian president decided to run as an independent, without the support of his party, United Russia, and had to gather 300,000 signatures. He submitted them at the end of January and was registered.
#pacifist #candidate #presidential #race #challenge #Putin