MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Candidates representing 20 political parties have been formally registered to contest various offices in Russia’s upcoming elections, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said.
"As far as the participation of political parties goes, out of the 23 parties that have nominated candidates, members of 21 parties were registered as of yesterday. One candidate decided to withdraw, as well as one party," she said at a CEC meeting.
The CEC chief specified, citing Justice Ministry data, that there were currently 25 political parties in Russia.
According to the CEC, 74,062 candidates have been officially registered to contest the elections, of whom over 63,000 represent political parties and about 11,000 are independent candidates without any party affiliation.
The CEC chairwoman also said that the percentage of rejected candidate registration applications "stands at below 1.5% for all election levels on average." "The final figure will be clarified in the coming days, after the registration process is completed in the remaining Russian regions," Pamfilova added.
Russia’s Unified Election Day falls on September 10 this year. The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, will take part in the nationwide voting for the first time since joining the Russian Federation. More than 4,000 election campaigns are expected to take place across 85 of Russia’s 89 regions. As many as 21 regions will hold direct elections for top officials and 20 regions will vote on members of local legislative assemblies. Voters will choose the winners among candidates vying for over 34,000 political offices.