MOSCOW, January 8. /TASS/. Fifteen independent applicants intended to participate in presidential elections in Russia, filed documents with Russia’s Central Election Commission, while 46 potential candidates initially claimed they would participate in the elections, according to Central Election Commission’s press service.
At midnight on January 8, the Commission has finished receiving documents from independent candidates. "Since the beginning of the presidential campaign, the Russian Central Election Commission received 46 notifications from citizens who decided to run in Russian presidential election independently, while only fifteen such candidates submitted their applications for consideration," the Commission said.
Self-nominated candidates must collect at least 300,000 signatures of voters on order to be registered, at least 7,500 signatures in each Russian region. Candidates from non-parliamentary parties require 100,000 signatures, candidates from parliamentary parties do not have to collect signatures.
The stage of registering candidates began on December 27, 2017. The Russian presidential election will be held on March 18, 2018. According to the campaign schedule, candidates nominated by parties are obliged to provide documents required for nomination to the Central Election Commission before January 12.