The Russsian Central Electoral Commission on Saturday rejected an application by a candidate calling for peace to stand in next year’s presidential elections.
The commission cited “mistakes in documents” submitted by Yekaterina Duntsova, a former journalist and city councilor campaigning “for peace and democratic processes,” Russian television reported.
Commission chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said the members unanimously rejected Duntsova’s bid to stand in polls that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to win comfortably.
Photo: AFP
Putin confirmed this month that he would participate in the election, which is to be held over three days beginning March 15.
The commission said Duntsova could not go on to the next stage of gathering thousands of supporters’ signatures.
“You are a young woman, you have everything ahead of you,” Pamfilova told her.
Duntsova, 40, had filed documents to stand in the March race as an independent candidate. She was required to provide documents proving that a group of at least 500 people had held a meeting backing her.
“A people’s initiative is not needed, is not welcomed,” Duntsova told journalists afterward, saying she would not have time to file another application as an independent candidate.
She wrote on social media that she would file an appeal against the ruling with the Russian Supreme Court.
She also urged the leadership of Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko to nominate her as its candidate.
Yabloko, Russia’s oldest democratic party, “should not stand on the sidelines. Russians should have a choice,” she wrote on Telegram.
Duntsova told journalists on Saturday “we are now waiting for some official, public answer on whether [Yabloko] are prepared to support me so we meet the deadline” of Jan. 1.
Yabloko cofounder Grigory Yavlinsky said in a YouTube video broadcast on Saturday that the party is not nominating a candidate.
The 71-year-old was unable to comment on Duntsova’s request for nomination, saying he “had no idea” about her.
Candidates from political parties lacking lawmakers in the national parliament, such as Yabloko, have a less arduous procedure to participate than independents. They have to gather signatures of 100,000 supporters by the end of January, while independent candidates have to find 300,000.
Duntsova said she was sure her supporters had no illusions about the outcome of the presidential “elections” in inverted commas.
However, “you must not do nothing,” as standing as a candidate is the “last legal opportunity for citizens to express their disagreement with the policies of the current authorities,” she wrote on Telegram.
Pamfilova on Saturday said that 29 people have filed to run for the presidency.
Moscow has for years sidelined opposition figures from elections and political life, a clampdown that accelerated after the Kremlin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine last year.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS