The Kremlin on Sunday kicked the only independent contender in Russia's presidential election off the ballot, a move described by activists as undemocratic and predictable.
Russia's Central Election Commission disqualified Michael Kasyanov from taking part in the March 2 poll. It claimed that more than 13 percent of the signatures needed for his candidacy to be registered had been faked.
The disqualification will raise further questions about the election's legitimacy. International observers described last month's parliamentary poll as profoundly rigged.
Kasyanov is a former prime minister who fell out with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2004. He was the only genuinely independent candidate in the race. Under Kremlin rules he had to gather 2 million signatures, something officials said he failed to do.
"Undoubtedly the decision not to register my candidacy ... was made personally by Vladimir Putin," Kasyanov said.
"Hopes that the political process [in Russia] will develop constitutionally have not been justified," he said.
Human rights activists said the disqualification of Kasyanov, who was thought unlikely to get more than 5 percent of the vote, was a Kremlin strategy designed to prevent him from embarrassing the authorities during the campaign.
"The denial of registration to Mikhail Kasyanov is a well thought out maneuver. It lowers the democratic level of this election," Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a human rights activist and leader of the Moscow Helsinki Group, told the agency Interfax.
There is not much doubt who will win the election. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister, is favored to win easily following Putin's endorsement of him as his successor last month. None of the three remaining candidates has any chance.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the elections for the state Duma were unfair.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique