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Yavlinsky, Mezentsev have defective signature sheets

Defects in Yavlinsky’s signature sheets make up 23.07 percent

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 23 (Itar-Tass) — Two candidates seeking to run for presidency – Grigory Yavlinsky nominated by opposition party Yabloko and self-nominee, Irkutsk region governor Dmitry Mezentsev – have problems with signature sheets, a member of the central election commission, Yelena Dubrovina, told Itar-Tass on Monday.

According to the central election commission’s working group, defects in Yavlinsky’s signature sheets make up 23.07 percent.

During the first stage of checking signature sheets, when 20 percent of signatures (400,000) were chosen by random sampling, “defects exceeded the legally permissible 5 percent,” Dubrovina said.

Under the effective legislation a candidate to be officially registered for presidency should have no more than 5 percent of defective signature sheets.

If the number of defects exceeds the norm, a repeated random sampling of signatures is taken.

Mezentsev’s election headquarters confirmed the fact.

Yavlinsky’s team has not made official comments so far.

“We do not comment this information until the central election commission makes an official statement,” Dubrovina said.

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