MOSCOW, September 29 (Itar-Tass) —— Representatives of the United Russia Party on Thursday handed over the party's list of candidates for the Duma elections to the Russian Central Election Commission.
On the list, which was endorsed by the party's September 23-24 congress, are 600 candidates, the maximum number, in 80 regional groups. In the federal part is only one name – it is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who heads the list following the proposal of the party's leader Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Putin has called the ruling party a "presidential" one. In 2007, before leaving the post of head of state, he also led United Russia to the elections.
United Russia is the last of seven participating parties to submit its list to the CEC.
The CPRF, Just Russia and the LDPR, also represented in the parliament, promised to form lists of 600 candidates, but finally handed in lists of 595, 585 and 512 candidates, respectively.
The other three parties Right Cause, Yabloko and Patriots of Russia, which are not represented in the parliament and unlike the parliament's four, have to collect at least 150,000 signatures of support until October 19, have submitted their lists of 376, 374 and 309 people, respectively.
The lists of Yabloko, the Patriots of Russia and the LDPR are already signed and sealed by the CEC. The LDPR, as a parliamentary party, was the first to hand in the documents on September 26 to participate in the elections.
The Central Election Commission is to sign a list within seven days after the documents are submitted. A signed list may not be changed. A party has no right to change places of candidates or move them on the list. It may only withdraw some candidate, not changing the list configuration and its regional groups.
The procedure is needed to correct mistakes and inaccuracies before the registration, which makes a party an official participant of the election campaign, commission members explained.