Press release, 07.08.2017

On 4th August, the territorial electoral commission of the Sovetsky district, Nizhny Novgorod, refused to register Deputy Chair of the regional Yabloko branch Oleg Rodin as candidate for a deputy of the city parliament. The head of the commission Alexei Kamrakov refused to listen to the people who came to the meeting to confirm their signatures. He said they had had no right to participate in the meeting.

Nine people whose signatures were declared “forged” came to the meeting on purpose to certify their signatures in person. Other 12 people forwarded written appeal requests to the commission in order to certify their signatures in support of the candidate.

“Unfortunately, we once again face the situation when voters come to electoral commissions on purpose to certify their signatures but they are told that some expert’s reference is more important than their personal statement,” Yabloko Deputy Chair Nikolai Rybakov said.

Oleg Rodin claims that the refusal to register him as candidate is politically motivated.

“The electoral commission members refused to listen to the citizens and ignored all our objections and demands paying no attention to the opinion of 190 who put their signatures in support of my candidacy,” he said.

The politician will continue his activity in the district despite the refusal to register him.