MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. A Central Election Commission (CEC) working group has found 14.9% of the voter signatures submitted by Communists of Russia party leader Sergey Malinkovich for registration as a presidential candidate to be invalid, he told TASS.
"I can see from the report provided to us by the working group that the CEC meeting will not approve my registration as a candidate, as they found fault with a very large number of entries in the lists. The percentage is above the norm at 14.9%," Malinkovich said. The percentage must not exceed 5% for registration.
According to Malinkovich, he has no plans to contest the decision if it blocks his registration. "We will not contest the decision. Not because we think that they are right on all counts, but because we do not want to cause an upheaval amid the special military operation," Malinkovich said.
So far, the CEC has registered four presidential candidates - Leonid Slutsky (nominated by the LDPR), Nikolay Kharitonov (KPRF), Vladislav Davankov (New People) and incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin (self-nominated).