RUSSIALINK: “Moscow City Election Commission officially denies registration to 5 candidates to Moscow City Duma” – Interfax

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MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) – Appeals of five self-nominated candidates to the denials of district electoral commissions to register them as candidates to the Moscow City Duma have been declined by the decisions of the Moscow City Election Commission.

The decisions were made at a meeting of the Moscow City Election Commission on Thursday, an Interfax correspondent reported.

While considering these appeals, some voter signatures, which have previously been found to be invalid, were regarded to be authentic almost for all candidates, Chairman of the Moscow City Election Commission Valentin Gorbunov told reporters following the meeting.

About 3,500 signatures were found to be valid for Jankauskas, and over 150 signatures for Zhdanov and Gudkov each .

“However, all five candidates unfortunately lacked authentic signatures. The decisions of the district election commissions were upheld,” Gorbunov said.

While considering complaints, the Moscow City Election Commission has also verified the whole package of documents filed for registration, he said. Certain violations were discovered in income, expenditure and foreign property declarations of some candidates that is regarded as a separate ground for the denial of registration.

The Moscow City Election Commission decisions can be appealed in the Russian Central Elections Commission and in the Moscow City Court, Gorbunov added.

The working group of the Moscow City Election Commission also recommended declining these five appeals on Wednesday.

In particular, Dmitry Gudkov (5th electoral constituency), director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Ivan Zhdanov (8th electoral constituency), deputy of the Zyuzino municipal district Konstantinas Jankauskas (31st electoral constituency), as well as self-nominees Yulia Serebryanskaya (45th electoral constituency) and Konstantin Lisitsa (33rd electoral constituency) were denied registration as candidates.

Members of the Moscow City Election Commission considered these complaints without journalists. Unregistered candidate Lyobov Sobol demanded that head of the Moscow City Election Commission Gorbunov register her at the beginning of the commission meeting. In this connection, the discussion of complaints had to be moved to another room. After the working group of the Moscow City Election Commission has heard her complaint on Thursday morning, Sobol refused to leave the city election commission building, saying that she will continue her hunger strike there.

The Moscow City Election Commission will continue to consider complaints of candidates to the denial of registration by district electoral commissions on Friday. In particular, the commission will look into the appeals filed by lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Sobol and candidate from the Yabloko party Yelena Rusakova.

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