“Stalin candidate” brought signatures to the Central Election Committee of Russia

On Sunday, January 28, the Central Electoral Commission of Russia accepted the documents of presidential candidate Sergei Malinkovich, nominated by the “Communists of Russia” party. On the party’s website, Ego is called a “Stalinist candidate.”

Malinkovich claims that he has collected more than 100,000 signatures in his support, as required by law. The CEC said that representatives of “Communists of Russia” brought 19 boxes with signatures. 10 days are allotted for their verification. The media practically did not report on the collection of signatures for Malinkovich, even judging by the party’s website, only a few of his regional headquarters were active.

Malinkovich became the second candidate who brought signatures to the Central Election Committee – after the current president Vladimir Putin, who is running for his fifth term as a self-nominated candidate. A total of eight people collected or sold signatures. The CEC previously registered three candidates from the parties represented in the State Duma without collecting signatures.

Candidate Borys Nadezhdin, the only one of all candidates who openly opposes the war in Ukraine, continues to collect signatures. His staff called these weekends decisive. According to Nadezhdin’s headquarters, it was possible to collect more than 200,000 signatures in his support, however, the collection continues, since the law sets strict limits on the number of signatures that can be submitted from one region – no more than 2,500. At the same time, for example, in Moscow for Nadezhdin collected more than 6 thousand signatures, which means that most of them cannot be submitted to the Central Election Commission, and in Chechnya only 4 people signed for the candidate. Nadezhdin’s headquarters published a detailed schedule of signatures by region.

The deadline for submitting documents to the CEC expires on January 31.

In the 2018 elections, the representative of “Communists of Russia” was on the ballot – then it was Maksym Suraykin. As a rule, the campaign of this party is aimed at taking away votes from the CPRF.

• Voting in the presidential elections of Russia will take place from March 15 to 17, 2024. Elections in Russia are assessed by independent observers and experts as not free and dishonest. The authorities regularly intervene in the electoral process, make access to the opposition more difficult, create advantages for pro-power candidates, and in some cases outright falsifications are involved.