Russian Journalist Challenging Putin Barred From Participating In Elections

• 23.12.2023, 13:08

“Errors” were found in the documents.

The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation did not allow Russian journalist Ekaterina Duntsova to participate in the presidential “elections” in 2024.

As Sota notes, the commission found “a number of serious errors” in the documents submitted for the nomination of the candidate.

According to the CEC statement, the notary who certified the documents made mistakes, including indicating the wrong passport number for the organizer of the initiative group meeting.

“We studied the documents very carefully, we got the impression that the documents were made in haste, in violation of procedural norms,” said CEC Chairwoman Ella Panfilova.

Members of the commission drew attention to the lack of data on the collection of signatures in the protocol provided by Duntsova.

The document, according to the CEC, was drawn up after the meeting, which makes it difficult to establish the exact number of group participants. During the commission meeting, the question was raised: “How to establish the identity of these people? Are they over 18 years old? Are they Russian citizens?”

The CEC representative also did not find a certified protocol on the registration of the initiative group, which became another factor in favor of identifying violations. In addition, Duntsova was accused of not having enough flyers for voting. In this regard, the Central Election Commission recommended that the candidate be rejected.

The initiative group supported the nomination of Ekaterina Duntsova for the presidential elections on December 17. Three days later, she submitted documents to the CEC. The next day, Duntsova said that the notary who certified the registration protocol of the initiative group was under pressure.