MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) —— Chairman of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov has come out against reinstating the “against all” column in ballot papers.

Talking to journalists on Monday, Churov said he had discussed this problem with a number of his colleagues on Sunday. “No such candidate as ‘against all’ exists in nature. Votes cast in favor of such ‘a candidate’ are distributed between the winning parties,” Churov said. “The majority do not think it is honest,” he said.

This year the ruined ballot papers made up 1.5 percent of their overall number, which is 0.5 percent up against the number of the ruined ballot papers in the election to the State Duma of the fifth convocation in 2007, Churov said. “There was no mass ruining of ballot papers,” Churov stressed.