Interfax: Russian Constitutional Court doesn’t accept Navalny’s complaint over participation in presidential election

Russian Constitutional Court file photo

ST. PETERSBURG. Jan 19 (Interfax) – The Russian Constitutional Court has refused to accept Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny’s complaint about the norms of the court’s law on presidential elections.

The court’s ruling, dated January 18, is available on the court’s website.

The Russian Constitutional Court earlier scrutinized a norm similar to that contested by Navalny as part of a previous complaint about the election law. The contents of the contested norms in the election law and the law on presidential elections are the same, and the Russian Constitutional Court’s stance on this matter remains unchanged, promoting the court to refuse to accept Navalny’s complaint.

Navalny’s lawyer Ivan Zhdanov told Interfax earlier that the opposition activist had forwarded a complaint to the Russian Constitutional Court arguing that the law on Russian presidential elections contradicts the country’s constitution.

Navalny requested that the Constitutional Court recognize the Russian law on presidential elections as unconstitutional with respect to a provision establishing additional restrictions on the existence of a passive electoral right.

The Central Elections Commission (CEC) earlier declined to register a group in support of Navalny’s nomination as a presidential candidate due to his lack of a right to be elected.

The opposition activist appealed against this decision in the Russian Supreme Court, which dismissed his appeal on December 30, 2017. The Supreme Court’s appeal instance later found this ruling lawful.

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