DThe liberal war opponent Boris Nadjeschdin is not allowed to run in Russia's presidential election in mid-March. The Central Election Commission said that more than 15 percent of the almost 105,000 signatures submitted by Nadjezhdin for his candidacy were incorrect. According to the law, an error rate of no more than five percent is permitted.
The Central Election Commission complained, among other things, that there were eleven deceased people on Nadjezhdin's support lists. The majority of the signatures that were declared invalid were rejected by the electoral commission for formal reasons.
Nadyezhdin announced a lawsuit against the decision in the Supreme Court of Russia. The whole world saw the queues of people who had signed for his candidacy, said Nadjezhdin. The refusal to run for office does not apply to him: “There are tens of millions of people here who planned to vote for me.” In surveys he gets a double-digit percentage, he is in second place behind Putin – “and they tell me something like eleven Kill”.
The decision was already apparent
Nadjezhdin was the only one of the potential candidates approved by the Central Election Commission to collect signatures in December who openly spoke out against the war against Ukraine, but was careful in his formulations not to violate censorship rules. Numerous opponents of the regime spoke out in favor of him. The wife of the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalnyj had also signed for Nadjezhdin's candidacy. In Moscow and other cities in January, people queued for hours in freezing temperatures to sign for Nadjezhdin.
The decision against Nadjezhdin's candidacy had already become apparent in the past few days when representatives of the electoral commission spoke of a high number of incorrect signatures. On Tuesday, supporters of the opposition presented examples on his Telegram channel of how the electoral commission had rejected signatures for which it had incorrectly digitized the addresses. Russian exile media reported at the end of January, citing sources close to the Kremlin, that the presidential administration would not allow the candidacy of a liberal war opponent.
Three candidates from the pseudo-opposition in parliament were admitted to the election as sparring partners for President Vladimir Putin. Putin had the Russian constitution changed in 2020 in order to be able to run as a candidate again. His re-election is considered certain. After six years in office, according to the current constitution, he is allowed to run for the last time in 2030.