MOSCOW, January 23 (Itar-Tass) — The signatures collected in support of Grigory Yavlinsky as a presidential candidates are real and authentic, Yabloko leaders said.
“The party collected and submitted more than 2 million signatures from real people,” Sergei Ivanchenko, one of the Yabloko leaders, said at a press conference on Monday, January 23.
Commenting on the Central Election Commission’s statement that many of the signatures had turned out to be photocopied, he admitted that “there were photocopies of forms signed by real people”.
According to Yavlinsky, signatures were collected using photocopies of forms because of their lack. Later official forms arrived and the signatures were transferred from photocopies to official forms.
Although Yabloko collected 2,083,000 signatures, “the law was intentionally written in such a way as to make compliance with it impossible”.
Ivanenko said that that the CEC’s decision was not final and that the commission would examine another batch of signatures. “I hope that we will be able to fight further, not beg but fight,” he said.
Yavlinsky believes that the current situation has political implications and aims to prevent him from running in the presidential election because “they do not want an alternative”.
“The picture is very simple: the other candidates represent different versions of the authorities and do not differ from each other much,” he said.
In his opinion, if he is denied registration, “the most conscientious part of the population that can secure the future will be left out of the elections”.
Another reason for which he can be denied registration is that Yabloko can have a large number of observers during the election.
He intends to ask the party leadership to convene a congress. “We will convene a congress in the middle of February and have a serious discussion in order to work out positions on this issue,” he said.
In his opinion, the delegates will have much serious work to do. At the same time, he noted that one could speak of Yabloko’s final moves only after the CEC has announced the final lists of presidential candidates.
Yavlinsky said the Central Election Commission’s decision on fake signatures in his support was politically motivated.
“This is a purely political decision and it has no direct relation to the collection of signatures,” Yavlinsky said at a press conference on Monday, January 23.
CEC Secretary Nikolai Konkin said 23.07 percent of signatures submitted in support of Yavlinsky were fake.