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Prokhorov may form his party before presidential election

Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov may form a new party without waiting for the presidential election

MOSCOW, January 24 (Itar-Tass) —— Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov may form a new party without waiting for the presidential election. He proposed to discuss the option at the first meeting of his public council whose mission included the drafting of the future party’s program.

Prokhorov said he had received plenty of proposals to start the formation of a new party. “I planned to start that work after the presidential election. I want your advice whether to do that before or after the election,” he noted.

The Prokhorov campaign staff announced the formation of the 18-member public council on Monday. It said that the public council would assist Prokhorov in his election campaign. “The public council expressed the readiness to provide consultations on key elements of the election campaign, such as the election program, public events and interaction with various audiences,” the businessman’s press service said.

“The council also said that it would continue working on the Prokhorov program after the ballot regardless of its outcome,” the press service said. “Prokhorov said many times that he would form a political party anyway, and the party would need a topical program.”

Eight working groups have been formed at the public council. “These groups will concentrate on the upgrading of the election program until March 4. After the election the document will be transformed into the party program,” the press service said.

Prokhorov may be registered as a presidential candidate already on January 25. The Russian Central Elections Commission said on Monday that the number of unreliable or invalid signatures in support of Prokhorov was smaller than the 5% set by the law. “I have been informed officially that I will be registered as a presidential candidate,” Prokhorov said.

Only Prokhorov, has formed the maximal campaign fund of 400 million rubles, Central Elections Commission Deputy Chairman Stanislav Vavilov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday in comment to the information as of January 20.

Prokhorov is also the leader by the amount of campaign expenditures. The Central Elections Commission said he had spent about 69 million rubles. Obviously, most of the sum was spent on the collection of two million signatures he needed for the registration.

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