The exclusion from the electoral race of the peace candidate, the opposition Boris Nadezhdin, left the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, without a rival this Thursday, who He now has a clear path for his re-election in March, with the war in Ukraine as his main slogan.
“You are not rejecting me, but the tens of millions of people who long for change,” Nadezhdin said on his Telegram channel, addressing the Central Election Commission (CEC).
(You can read: The tension between Ecuador and Russia over the delivery of Soviet weapons to the United States)
The opposition to the Kremlin accuses Putin of putting obstacles to Nadezhdin's registration for fear that it will bring together all the discontents not only with the war, but with the authoritarian drift of the Kremlin.
Unlike 2018, when up to eight candidates ran for president, this time Putin will compete with three candidates with little charisma presented by parties with parliamentary representation that support the Russian military campaign.
Form defects
The CEC rejected the opponent's registration due to errors detected in more than 15% of the signatures he submitted on January 31 to apply for his candidacy.
It ruled that Nadezhdin presented 95,587 valid signatures, when he needed 100,000 for registration, having the support of a party without parliamentary representation (Citizen Initiative).
In particular, it established that the opponent's team made various formal errors, including eleven dead souls, by using outdated databases.
One should not cross the border where people who have already died appear on the lists in favor of candidates.
(Keep reading: The almost unknown Russian opponent who intends to challenge Putin in the presidential elections)
“You should not cross the border where deceased people appear on the lists in favor of candidates,” said Nikolai Buláev, deputy head of the CEC.
In addition, some of the signature collectors were not authorized to do so by a notary or were incorrectly identified, details that Nadezhdin's team considers insufficient to invalidate the signatures.
Meanwhile, in the case of the president, Vladimir Putin, he recalled that Commission officials found only 91 invalid signatures, allowing him to run for re-election on March 17..
Nadezhdin does not lose hope
Boris Nadezhdin collected more than 200,000 signatures for his candidacy.
“I do not agree with the decision of the Electoral Commission (…) I will appeal to the Supreme Court of Russia,” said Nadezhdin, whose surname in Russian derives from the word “hope.”
He insisted that his co-religionists collected the signatures “in an open and honest manner,” since “everyone saw the queues in front of our electoral headquarters and our offices.”
“There were tens of millions of people who wanted to vote for me. In the polls I am in double digits, I am in second place after Putin and you tell me about eleven deaths,” he said.
The CEC warned him that has never lost a case before the Supreme Court in the four occasions in which the candidates appealed the decision of the electoral authority, but Nadezhdin was not deterredalthough he did not allude to the possible call for protests.
(We recommend: 'Russia cannot win if kyiv's allies behave sensibly.')
He insisted that the handwriting specialists have not found a single false signature and denounced that the system is made in such a way that only “admissible candidates” for the Kremlin are registered.
“I ask you not to give up. What many could not believe happened. Citizens felt the possibility of changes in Russia. You are the ones who stood in long lines to tell the world: 'Russia will be a great, peaceful and free country.' “, he claimed.
Nadezhdin's signature collection campaign, which called the beginning of the “special military operation” a “fatal mistake”, became the first massive and legal display of rejection against the war since the start of the war in February 2022.
A communist, a nationalist and a businessman
In this regard, the presidential spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, limited himself to ensuring that The commission has done its job which consists of demanding respect for the current regulations.
“What we have heard from the CEC are a large number of errors in the signatures and the invalidity of a large number of them. In other words, this important criterion has not been met,” he said.
The CEC has registered only four candidates: Putin; the communist Nikolai Kharitonov; the ultranationalist Leonid Slutski and the representative of Gente Nueva, the businessman Vladislav Davankov.
While Nadezhdin assures that he has a voting intention of 15-20%, Putin's three rivals are very unpopular among Russians.
Putin, 71 years old and whose management is approved by 80% of Russians, according to official polls, should win the elections with more votes than in 2018, when he received more than 76% of the votes.
(Read also: Almost 30 dead in bombing in a Ukrainian city occupied by Russia)
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 will be able to do again in six years and, in this way, remain in the Kremlin until 2036.
EFE
#Vladimir #Putin #left #rival #year39s #presidential #elections #Russia
