Babuskin will challenge the law on signatures in the Constitutional Court.

Press Release, 6.08.2019

The Central Electoral Commission rejected the complaint of Andrei Babushkin, candidate nominated by Yabloko to run for the Moscow City Duma election. Earlier, the Moscow City Electoral Commission supported the decision of the district electoral commission, removing Babushkin from the election due to alledgely faulty signatures. Andrei Babushkin is a well-known human rights activist, member of the Presidential Human Rights Council and member of the Yabloko Federal Bureau.

The formal reason for the refusal of the Central Electoral Commission is a missed deadline for filing a complaint (the day of fining was not counted). Andrei Babushkin said that he would appeal this decision in court.

Babushkin also intends to seek in the Constitutional Court the abolition of the regional law on collection of three percent of voters’ signatures from the total of residents of the district for candidates for deputies of the Moscow City Duma. According to Andrei Babushkin, this norm violates the constitutional rights of voters, “According to the Constitution, the people is a source of power, and the will of the people – the will of voters – must be realised during the election process. However, we see that Moscow legislation contains significant obstacles or even barriers making realization of the voter’s will not only difficult, but even impossible. ”

Today, the Central Electoral Commission will also consider the complaint of another candidate from Yabloko – Yelena Rusakova, head of the Gagarinsky municipal district of Moscow. In addition, today at 6 p.m., the electoral commission of district No. 43 will make the final decision on registering Sergei Mitrokhin,  member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee.