MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS./ All applicants for the post of President of the Russian Federation, who passed to the CEC signatures of citizens in support, successfully passed the stage of verification of signatures and will be allowed to vote.
Thus, in the newsletter, which will get the Russians on the day of the presidential election on March 18, 2018, according to the current time, can mean eight names.
The situation became clear after the announcement of the results of the working group of the CEC, verified petitions, the returned candidates of the party “Communists of Russia” Maxim by Caricinum and “Civil initiative” Ksenia Sobchak. They passed autographs for review to the CEC on January 31, the last day allotted in the schedule to the stage of collecting and submitting signatures.
The fact that one of the most organizationally complex and time-consuming stages of the campaign were who gave the CEC the required signatures, the experts called unprecedented, noting the quality of the work of headquarters.
Who and how passed signature
At the moment the registration of candidates has already received three members of the election campaign, acting President Vladimir Putin, who is running as self-nominated candidates, and nominees of the parliamentary parties of the liberal democratic party Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the Communist party Pavel Grudinin. The next two days, this procedure will have five candidates.
Russian legislation exempts candidates of the parliamentary parties from the necessity of passing signatures, independent candidates requires to submit no less than 300 thousand (and not more than 315 thousand) signatures collected in support of not less than 40 regions of the country, for candidates of non-parliamentary parties, this number is three times less – at least 100 thousand and not more than 105 thousand signatures. All the work of collecting signatures can be carried out solely at the expense of the election funds of candidates, the maximum amount which may not exceed 400 million rubles.
The CEC head Ella Pamfilova said that “the verification of signature sheets were held in equal conditions for all candidates, all doubts when testing was interpreted in favor of the candidates.” According to the results of the least number not satisfying the requirements of the law of the autographs were Putin – just 0.39%. Then in ascending order of marriage followed by Yavlinsky (of 1.07%), Sobchak (1,33%), Baburin (3,18%), suraykin (3,72%) and Titov (4.35 percent).
Thus, the amount of signatures out when checking all of these candidates is fixed at less than 5%, allowing them to be registered in the absence of other obstacles to this and to continue further participation in the campaign. “At the moment we have to put forward candidates whose signatures we checked, no negative reasons to reject a registration, in fact. They all [have] a chance to be registered other grounds not to register there,” – said Pamfilova.
Unprecedented case
Noteworthy is the fact that successfully passed the validation phase of the autographs of all who submitted them. Pamfilova called it “an unprecedented case”, Recalling that earlier never was such that all candidates who have passed the signatures are successfully verified. She explained that those applicants for the post of President, “are well prepared and verified” petitions submitted to the CEC.
Agree with that assessment and election experts polled by TASS. “With regard to the outcome of the campaign to collect signatures, we can note that the increased political culture of the candidates and their staffs,” said a member of the presidential Council for civil society development and human rights Alexander Brod, adding that candidates and their staffs become “more responsible” approach to the collection of signatures and their verification.
According to the President of holding “Minchenko consulting” Evgeny Minchenko, all candidates and their staffs “very professional came to collect signatures.” On the other hand, he said, the CEC at this time, “not so much find fault with the collection of signatures.” “There is sentiment that [in the election] should be presented to the widest possible range of political forces that no one had any questions regarding the honesty and integrity of the election campaign,” – said the expert.
His role is obviously played by the fact that compared to previous campaigns, the task of collecting the signatures of the candidates were seriously lightweight.
In the last election they were to pass 2 million autographs, which sometimes became an insurmountable obstacle to electoral and experienced fighters. For example, in 2012, was not admitted to the elections, Yavlinsky, the signatures of which was discovered more than 25% of marriage. According to Pamfilova, reducing the number of signatures for candidates from non-parliamentary parties 20 times, and for independent candidates – seven times has given candidates more opportunities a careful approach to the verification of autographs.
Who will reach the finish line
At the moment the officially registered three candidates for the presidential election, Zhirinovsky held the stage at the end of last year, Grudinin Putin. 7 February, the CEC will consider questions on registration of Yavlinsky, Titov and Baburin, February 8 – Sobchak and Suraykin.
In case of successful completion of the registration of all candidates, the number of names placed on the ballot, not to exceed eight, although theoretically still could be reduced. The law allows the candidate and party who made it, no later than five days before the vote, submit to the CEC a statement of withdrawal from the election. In exceptional cases the candidate can do the day before the election.
In the absence of force majeure, the finalist of the current election race will be the largest since early 2000 elections, which were attended by 11 candidates. In March 2004, the Russians had to tick one of the six candidates, four years later, the number of applicants for the presidency had been reduced to four, in 2012, fought for it, five candidates – four “party” and one independent candidate.
The form and text of the ballot, the CEC must approve no later than 24 days before voting day, the names of the candidates will be arranged in it in alphabetical order.
From February 17, will start campaigning in the mass media.
