Russia's Supreme Court rejected this Thursday (15) the first appeal filed by opposition figure Boris Nadezhdin against the Central Election Commission's (CEC) regulations on collecting signatures for presidential candidates.
The Supreme Court agreed with the CEC that collectors must be registered in the city where they register signatures.
The presidential candidate argued that, for this reason, the Electoral Commission considered thousands of signatures collected in Moscow among citizens from other regions invalid.
“We act within the scope of our legal powers. According to these rules, the signature collector confirms that he collected them for a certain candidate and in a certain region, where he is registered as an authorized person,” he stated.
Furthermore, he recalled that federal law does not prevent citizens from signing when and where they deem appropriate.
After learning of the Supreme Court's decision, the opponent known as the candidate for peace, as he is the only one who opposes the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, announced that he will appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The Supreme Court has not yet processed a second appeal by Nadezhdin's team regarding the aforementioned regulations of the Electoral Commission, which last week rejected his registration as a presidential candidate.
Nadezhdin has not yet appealed this CEC decision, which detected errors in more than 15% of the signatures presented by the liberal candidate.
The commission found that the opponent's team made formal errors, including the inclusion of signatures from 11 dead people, when using outdated databases.
Nadezhdin's signature collection campaign became the first massive, legal demonstration of war rejection since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The opposition accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of doing everything possible to prevent the pacifist candidate from participating, as they fear that he will bring together all those dissatisfied not only with the war, but with the Kremlin's authoritarian turn.
The CEC registered four candidates: Putin; communist Nikolai Kharitonov; the nationalist Leonid Slutski and the representative of the Gente Nova party, Vladislav Davankov.
Although he publicly assured that he would not do so, Putin reformed the Constitution in 2020 to be able to run for re-election, something he could do again in six years and, in this way, remain in the Kremlin until 2036.
#Russian #Supreme #Court #rejects #appeal #presidential #candidate #opposes #Putin
