MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. The chief of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, has said that there are no serious reasons for postponing the forthcoming September 8 elections to the Moscow City Duma. Should such reasons surface, the CEC will be prepared to consider a delay.
"Postponing elections without a reason is impossible. There must be serious grounds for this. So far there have been only speculations that those who did not collect signatures were registered, while those who collected them were denied registration. As you may understand, this is not serious," Pamfilova said in a commentary on the Business FM radio station.
The CEC would be prepared to consider a postponement only if there are facts and reasons for this, she stated.
"Naturally, we will then look into the situation in accordance with the law. Now it would be premature. We are not through yet with studying all messages addressed to us and other evidence we are still getting. There is no opportunity at the moment for discussing this at all," Pamfilova said.
Earlier, the daily Vedomosti said one of those denied registration as a candidate in the Moscow City Duma elections, Ilya Yashin, addressed the CEC chief with a written request for postponing the September 8 election to the Moscow city legislature till late autumn. Also, he asked Pamfilova to let opposition candidates participate.
The Moscow City Duma elections are due September 8. A total of 233 candidates, including 171 candidates from political parties and 62 self-nominees have been registered. Registration was denied to 57 potential candidates, including 39 self-nominees. A total of 129 candidates will be contesting Moscow City Duma seats from parliamentary parties: 45 from the LDPR, 44 from the CPRF and 40 from A Just Russia. Among the registered candidates there are also nominees from the parties Yabloko, the Communists of Russia, Rodina, the Greens and the Party of Growth.