On Wednesday, Russia’s Supreme Court discussed the claim from a former presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky against the Central Elections Commission, which had refused to register the leader of Yabloko for the presidential election. The Supreme Court officially confirmed that the refusal was legal. The reason was the fact that the number of unacceptable signatures for the candidate exceeded a possible level by more than five times.
The Supreme Court did not satisfy Grigory Yavlinsky’s appeal to make the Central Elections Commission register him as a candidate, Kommersant reports. Having checked 600,000 signatures presented, the Central Elections Commission stated that 153,900 of them were unacceptable /26.5 percent/, which exceeds a possible share of such signatures. Out of all the signatures, 137,400 were claimed unacceptable because instead of the originals, the lists photocopies were presented. The reason was that some signatures from Yavlinsky’s distanced supporters could have been obtained by electronic mail only, Yabloko’s chairman Sergei Mitrokhin said.
“The court decision was predictable, but it was important to pass the procedure. We are right,” Yavlinsky wrote in his Twitter. However, the party is not rushing to contact with the ECHR. Sergei Mitrokhin said that the party members would work jointly with law experts on the cases, but he did not see much sense in that.
Now, Yabloko’s leader has five days to file an appeal, but it is not clear as yet whether he will use the option, Rossiiskaya Gazeta writes. The party formulated its position already: “The court decision is as political as the decision the Central Elections Commission had made,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.