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The opponent Ilya Iachine addresses his supporters during a demonstration in Moscow on July 14, 2019. REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov

Around 2,000 people demonstrated Sunday (July 14th) in Moscow in support of opposition candidates barred from participating in a local election in September.

With our correspondent in Moscow, Paul Gogo

The demonstration was not allowed, but Muscovites were numerous in the streets of the capital this Sunday to support opposition candidates who are prevented one by one from being able to participate in the election of the municipal parliament next September. Opposition candidates who have been excluded from the major polls rely heavily on these hyperlocal elections in which they have some success.

These opponents, mostly close to Alexei Navalny, need about 4,000 signatures in their neighborhood in one month and in the middle of summer to be allowed to participate. A mission almost impossible. " We demand that our dignity as citizens be recognized and we will go out as long as we need to. We will meet every day as long as it is necessary because it is our country, our city, "warns Dmitry Gudkov, one of these candidates.

At the head of the procession, Lioubov Sobol is one of the few to have obtained all the necessary signatures. But the young lawyer expects the electoral commission to find a way to refuse her candidacy. Lioubov Sobol began Saturday, July 13 a hunger strike. She will now claim her registration in the September ballot at the commission every day with protesters.

The crowd of big days in the center of #Moscou to request the registration of opposition candidates in the September poll (municipal parliament). Mostly "Navalnians". It should be noted that Liubov Sobol is on hunger strike. No worries with the police. pic.twitter.com/hdVrJEGJxN

Paul Gogo (@Paugog) July 14, 2019