Malinkovich, Nadezhdin, Batashev, Russkikh: The Central Election Commission refused to register four candidates for the presidential elections

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation on Thursday, February 8, denied registration to Sergei Malinkovich, Boris Nadezhdin, Anatoly Batashev and the Russian Rada.

“The grounds for refusal of registration are an insufficient number of reliable signatures and/or identification of 5% or more of unreliable and invalid signatures of voters collected in support of the nomination of a candidate,” the CEC said in a statement.

As the Central Election Commission clarified, the candidate from the Communists of Russia, Sergei Malinkovich, submitted 104,998 signatures for consideration, among which 8,979 were identified as invalid, which exceeds the legal threshold of 5%.

The CEC also refused to register the candidate from the “Civil Initiative” Boris Nadezhdin. He submitted 104,734 signatures, of which 9,147 were found to be invalid, which also exceeds 5% of the total.

At the same time, Nadezhdin himself stated that he intended to appeal to the Supreme Court the decision of the Central Election Commission to refuse registration as a candidate for the elections.

He also appealed to the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, with a request to postpone the issue of his registration, to which she noted that the commission met the candidates halfway when it postponed the meeting for a day.

“At this stage, we have not only followed the entire procedure, it has been more than complied with,” RIA Novosti quotes Pamfilova.

Candidates Anatoly Batashev and the Russian Rada submitted 313 and 476 signatures to the CEC, respectively. In an explanation of the decision regarding both candidates, the CEC indicated an insufficient number of signatures and failure to submit other necessary documents.

Also on russian.rt.com “In accordance with the law”: The Central Election Commission has completed accepting documents for participation in the presidential elections

Pamfilova said that based on the results of today's events, it is obvious that four candidates will be represented on the final ballot for the elections.

“Colleagues have finished considering questions about registering candidates. Today we are completing a certain cycle, because as a result of our meeting today, we are already completely clear that there will be four candidates on the ballot,” TASS quotes her as saying.

Let us remind you that voting in the Russian presidential elections will last three days: March 15, 16 and 17, 2024. The Central Election Commission registered four candidates for the post of head of state. These are Leonid Slutsky from the LDPR, Vladislav Davankov from the New People party, Nikolai Kharitonov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin, who stood as a self-nominated candidate.

During the February 8 meeting, Pamfilova also noted that Malinkovich and Nadezhdin had been identified as having collected signatures from members of the commission at various levels, which is prohibited by law.

“We raised this issue very firmly. We warned all candidates to double-check before bringing signatures to the Central Election Commission to see if among the collectors there are those who do not have the right by law to collect them,” RIA Novosti quotes her as saying.

The CEC also noted that it took 162 hours to verify Malinkovich’s signatures, while Nadezhdin’s signatures took 144 hours to check. As Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission Nikolai Bulaev said, at the time of verification, any candidate or his representative can express a position, make comments and make complaints about the work of experts and members of the working group.

“There were no representatives of Boris Nadezhdin at all during the verification of signature sheets,” Bulaev said, clarifying that Malinkovich and his representative were present at the procedure for only three hours.

Bulaev also noted that signatures of deceased people were found on Malinkovich and Nadezhdin. As the deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission noted, this may indicate the use of old databases to falsify signatures. He noted that he does not blame the candidates for this, since they have to work with a large number of collectors, but he called the very fact of dead people appearing on the lists the height of cynicism.

“You can’t cross the border when we have dead people appearing on the lists of signatories for candidates. Then you can reach the point of insanity that the candidate can already add to some lists,” RIA Novosti quotes Bulaev.

The CEC also stated that, following the results of the current presidential campaign, they will propose collecting signatures in support of candidates remotely through the government services portal.