Press Release, 4.07.2019

Electoral commissions of several municipal districts of St. Petersburg refused to register Yabloko candidates for municipal deputies.

Yabloko candidates were denied registration in the following municipalities: Pulkovsky Meridian, Zvezdnoye, Vvedenskoye, Aptekarsky Ostrov. The reason for the mass refusal of registration was the alleged shortcomings in the documents submitted to the commissions by Yabloko candidates.

According to Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, the refusal to register Yabloko candidates represented an obvious political task.

“In the absence of early voting, United Russia can avoid shameful defeat only by not allowing the opposition to the elections. Most likely, most of these refusal decisions will be canceled – either by the City Electoral Commission, or the Central Electoral Commission, or in court, ” Boris Vishnevsky said.

Maxim Katz, head of the party’s election headquarters in the St.Petersburg municipal elections, noted that the headquarters would fight for registering each candidate, since there were no legal grounds for denying registration to Yabloko’s candidates.

Earlier, Yabloko called on the Central Electoral Commission urging it solve the problem with non-registration of opposition candidates for municipal deputies of St. Petersburg. After the party’s appeal officers of the Central Electoral Commission came to St. Petersburg to conduct a check.

In addition, Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova, and Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, demanded to bring to criminal responsibility those involved in the non-admission of candidates for municipal elections in St. Petersburg. During a press conference in Interfax, Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, appealed to Ella Pamfilova, head of the Central Electoral Commission, asking her to personally visit St. Petersburg.

The Yabloko party nominated 547 candidates to run for deputies in 85 municipal councils of St. Petersburg. The nomination goes on.