Russia’s electoral authority has moved to ban the only anti-war candidate, who has garnered more support than anticipated, from running against Vladimir Putin in presidential elections in March.
The Central Election Commission found a 15 per cent error rate in the signatures collected by the campaign of Boris Nadezhdin, he wrote on Telegram on Monday. This exceeds the five per cent threshold that is allowed under electoral rules for a candidate to be registered.
While a final decision about his candidacy is due on Wednesday, the error rate and a smear campaign in state-controlled media highlighted the Kremlin’s concern about the unexpected show of support for the 60-year-old pacifist.
Russia moves to ban presidential candidate from running against Vladimir Putin https://t.co/zoM3SkWxPm
— Dan Azzi (@dan_azzi) February 6, 2024