“Error” in the signature list: will this Putin opponent be excluded from the presidential elections?

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Russian election officials have reported “flaws” in the presidential bid of Boris Nadezhdin, who wants to challenge incumbent Vladimir Putin in the March election.

Dozens of people on the signature list submitted by Nadezhdin are “no longer on this earth,” the deputy chairman of the electoral authority, Nikolai Bulayev, said on Friday. This raises questions about the “ethical standards” of even the person who collected the signatures, he added.

Outspoken opponent of Putin and the war in Ukraine

The 60-year-old Nadezhdin has been criticizing President Putin and the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine for weeks. In January, long lines formed across the country as supporters of the challenger lined up to sign their signatures to help him register as an official candidate for March’s presidential election.

On Wednesday, Nadezhdin submitted more than the required 100,000 signatures to the Central Election Authority. A decision on whether to approve his candidacy is expected next week. “Errors” in his registration documents could lead to his exclusion from the elections.

The committee summoned Nadezhdin and another candidate, communist Sergei Malinkovich, to a meeting on Monday. There, election officials must present the “results of the audit process” to them.

Nadezhdin wants to take the election authority to court

Nadezhdin rejected the election commission’s allegations. “We are all more alive than the living,” he wrote on the online service Telegram, where he also published photos of young people queuing to sign.

Referring to the Russian literary classic “The Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol, the politician added: “If anyone sees dead souls in my signature list, well, friends, these questions should not be addressed to me. This is more for the church or for exorcists.”

The 60-year-old also announced that he would take the election authority to court if it did not recognize his candidacy. In an interview with AFP news agency in January, Nadezhdin described Putin’s decision to launch a military offensive in Ukraine as “catastrophic.”

Political analyst Tatiana Stanavaya judged that the electoral authority’s statements were a sign that Nadezhdin should not be allowed to participate in the presidential elections. “The Kremlin has begun to prepare the public for the decision to expel Nadezhdin,” she wrote on the online service Telegram. (SDA)

Source: Blick