The struggle for a place in the ballot

Only a third of those who announced the presidential ambitions handed over documents, and units will come out to the finish line: the CEC does not let some, others have no money

Photo: gospress.ru

On the night of January 7 to 8, the deadline for submitting documents expired for those who decided themselves, and not from the party, to participate in the presidential election - they are called “self -nominated”. For candidates from parties - January 12. The first to successful registration must be collected 300 thousand signatures, 100 thousand party nominees need to run for autographs only two - candidates from two parliamentary parties, the Communist Party and the LDPR, the director of the state farm in the Moscow Region Pavel Grudinin and the constant Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The parties "United" and "Fair" Russia did not nominate anyone: they support Vladimir Putin, who, however, neglected their support and goes to a self -nominated person.

Only three weeks have only three weeks left for the collection of signatures: by January 31, all candidates must complete all procedures related to documents and signatures. The final list of candidates should be fully compiled by February 9th.

And just a week after this, paid agitation in the media will begin: the campaign period for presidential candidates this year begins on February 17. Prior to this, a draw for the distribution of time on the air and places for print media will be carried out.

The petty sieve of the Central Election Commission

Initially, 46 non -party candidates declared a desire to run. But the documents brought to the CEC only 15 people (five on the last day), and most were already refused.

The first to be the refusal was Aleksey Navalny , despite the fact that he was nominated by initiative groups at the same time in 20 cities - a total of 16 thousand people. The opposition politician appealed to the refusal of the outstanding criminal record in the Kirovles case already in two instances of the Supreme Court. His lawyers promise to reach the Constitutional Court, but admit that his chances of participating in the elections are minimal .

Refused to register other self -nominates with a criminal record. Journalist Oleg Lurie, who once found himself in prison for extortion, was not registered - he wanted a lot of money for non -publication of compromising evidence. But the reason for the refusal Lurie was different than in the history of Navalny - he "did not submit a protocol of registration of members of the collection of voters with a sufficient number of signatures." The refusal of registration by businessman Sergei Polonsky was also not related to his criminal record: according to the representative of the CEC, he provided not all documents, but the number of members of the initiative group after clarification was insufficient. Moreover, earlier members of the CEC as a potential reason for the refusal called the criminal record of the entrepreneur.

Arkady Lubarev, a member of the Council of Movement in Protection of Voter Rights, commented on the blog on the Voice website: “There is a feeling: it was made specifically to show that more than one Navalny is denied.” The expert doubts the logic of the formulations of the CEC in relation to Lurie and Polonsky: “If the criminal offense of the candidate deprives him of passive suffrage, then why is this not reflected in the decision? And if it does not deprive, it turns out that the members of the CEC distributed false information about the candidate. ”

“If the criminal offense of the candidate deprives him of passive suffrage, then why is this not reflected in the decision, the expert of“ Voices ”notes. And if it does not deprive, it turns out that the members of the CEC distributed false information about the candidate "

In addition, they refused to register the leader of the Renaissance movement Alexander Chukhlebov because of his residence permit in Finland, as well as for formal reasons-journalist Aine Gamzatova and human rights activist Tatyana Volovik.

The Chairman of the CEC Ella Pamfilova noted that among the candidates for the Higher post there are candidates “with a slap”. Perhaps she had in mind the founder of the “Children of the USSR” by Tristan Prushigin, who passed the documents on the last day allotted for self -nominated, January 7th. During the acceptance of documents, he answered the question about party affiliation that he is a communist from United Russia, and considers the restoration of the USSR to his goal.

So far, only two self -nominates have been allowed before the elections: Vladimir Putin and an entrepreneur from the Kostroma region Vladimir Mikhailov. The documents of three more at the time of the publication of this article were at the audit.

Money for the election

The first place in the ballot was the oldest presidential candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who does not need to collect signatures, as well as a candidate from the Communist Party Pavel Grudinin. Primary registration in the CEC (permission to open an account) by the beginning of this week received another 12 candidates from parties, including Ksenia Sobchak, which comes from the Civil Initiative party. In addition to her, their representatives nominated the “Russian National Union”, a party of good deeds, the “communists of Russia”, the Growth Party, the Party “Honestly/Man. Justice. Responsibility ”,“ Yabloko ”, the Monarchical Party,“ Party of Social Reforms - profit from natural resources - people ”, a party of social protection.

Putin has already 400 million rubles on the account. (the maximum possible amount): 23 organizations and 1 (one) citizen of the Russian Federation, who donated 30 thousand, became the donors, the Rain television channel said. Zhirinovsky collected half of the permitted - 200 million Grudinin flew to rest on the New Year holidays (explaining that he planned the trip in advance): on his account by the end of the holidays there were about 1 thousand rubles.

A candidate from the growth party Boris Titov and a candidate from the “Civil Initiative” Ksenia Sobchak raised 20 million each. 15 million rubles. - On the balance of the leader of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky.

Grudinin flew to the vacation for the New Year holidays (explaining that he planned the trip in advance), not bothering to engage in filming: there were about 1 thousand rubles on his account by the end of the holidays.

The successes in collecting signatures with these candidates are also comparable: the Yavlinsky team reported on the collection of about 35 thousand signatures, the party of Titov - about 21 thousand, Sobchak - about 23 thousand (but only 8 thousand were verified).

TV presenter Ekaterina Gordon (from the party of good deeds) reported about 50 thousand - but not signatures, but rubles, which were put on an election account. Apparently, the campaign in defense of the women that the television announced will last only three weeks.

Political economist Konstantin Sonin writes on his blog that elections without Navalny will pass according to a completely different scenario than to pass with his participation: “A person who collects tens of thousands of people in a hundred cities is already a very large size. By the standards of the 1990s, I would say that it would be 3-4th (which Navalny would share with the swan), after Yeltsin and Zyuganov. <...> In the 2000s, Putin, as a vacuum cleaner, cleaned the entire clearing of political leaders in the public sector-and is not subtle as a “big planet” that attracts everything, and strategically, appointing insignificant players to the post of prime ministers. ”