Russia’s elections commission has said it found “dead souls” among the more than 100,000 signatures of support submitted by Boris Nadezhdin, the sole anti-war candidate in next month’s presidential election, in a sign that he could be disqualified from a carefully managed ballot meant to deliver victory for Vladimir Putin.

Nadezhdin, a veteran politician who has associated with Kremlin insiders and the opposition to Putin, has been waging a last-minute campaign to get on the ballot for the election, with thousands of Russians standing for hours in the freezing cold to add their signature in his support.

While Nadezhdin has not yet been disqualified, Friday’s briefing at the central elections commission indicated that he could be removed in the run-up to the vote. He has been summoned to the commission on Monday for a review of the “errors” among his signatures.

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  • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Obviously Putin is going to get 105% of the votes. There’s no winning if you’re not Putin.

    But this is still quite a disaster for Putin as the collected votes are the closest thing to citizens expressing their real opinion on Putin.

    That’s why they are trying to present the signatures as illegitimate. It’s not that they are afraid of losing elections to the opposition. It’s the fact that the opposition got such a support that is problem.

      • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It wouldn’t get as far as Belarus IMO. Belarusian people don’t have such a slave mindset. They are not free, but they are also willing to fight somewhat for their rights.

        But still, popular candidate would be a problem in russia.