MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Head of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) Ella Pamfilova reported on Friday that a total of 70 people expressed their wish to participate in the presidential election that will be held on March 18, 2018.

"Since December 18, the CEC has been receiving notifications on holding events related to nomination of presidential candidates from 70 nomination subjects: from 24 parties and 46 citizens who reported about their nomination," she said at a CEC meeting.

On Friday, January 12, the CEC will stop receiving documents from presidential candidates nominated by parties, thus ending the nomination stage.

Overall, 15 self-nominated candidates were reported to have filed documents with the CEC, but only two of them - incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kostroma Region Duma MP and honored inventor Vladimir Mikhailov - were allowed to open election accounts and start the signature collection process. The others were denied it because of the violations committed during their nomination or restrictions in the eligibility to vote.

As for the party candidates, the CEC registered authorized agents from 14 parties that nominated candidates, given that the commission received 23 notifications of election conventions. However, two parties cancelled their conventions, the Russian United Labor Front convened twice, and four parties scheduled their conventions for January 11-12.