Grigory Yavlinsky claims Vladimir Putin was behind the decision to ban him from the election [AFP]
Russia’s central election commission has disqualified the sole liberal challenger to Vladimir Putin from the March 4 presidential ballot, in a move slammed by the opposition as undermining the legitimacy of the polls.
The commission said on Friday it could not accept about a quarter of the registration signatures gathered by Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of the Yabloko (Apple) party, because they were either photocopies of originals or fakes.
“I am sad to announce that we will not able to register Yavlinsky as a candidate,” Sergei Danilenko, election commission member, told a special hearing.
Russia’s presidential election rules have grown progressively stricter since 1996 and now require all independent candidates to collect two million signatures to win registration.
The restriction has been heavily criticised by the candidates as well as the growing protest movement against Putin, who will be standing for a third Kremlin term in the polls after his four-year stint as prime minister.
The PARNAS opposition group of former liberal cabinet members called on Putin to delay the election because of the
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