YABLOKO collected 203,000 signatures
for registration in the parliamentary election campaign
Press Release
October 13, 2011
YABLOKO has finished its campaign for collection of signatures
required for registration in the election race. On Monday,
October 17, YABLOKO will submit 150,000 signatures to the
Central Electoral Commission for registration in the parliamentary
election campaign. According to the Russian law parties have
to submit signatures to the electoral commission by 6 p.m.
of October 19.
The law on parliamentary elections is very tough: it envisages
that non-parliamentary parties have to collect at least 150,000
voters signatures; whereas a region can not give more that
5,000 signatures. Also the signatures should be collected
in at least half of Russian regions.
YABLOKOs campaign for collection of signatures lasted three
weeks (from September 21) in 74 Russias regions which allowed
to collect 203,000 voters signatures in favour of YABLOKO.
Over 4,000 collectors of signatures took part in the campaign.
Signatures were collected in the offices of YABLOKOs regional
branches, during street pickets and at the stops of public
transport. However, door-to-door campaigning gave the best
results.
Most of voters signatures in Moscow was collected by party
members and volunteers on a gratuitous basis. The eldest volunteer
was Sophia Korchikova (aged 87), university professor and
YABLOKO member. She alone collected 50 signatures.
Also YABLOKO had to overcome considerable difficulties and
obstacles in the campaign for collecting signatures. Thus,
Russian law stipulates that personal data of collectors of
signatures should be notarized. However, notaries turned out
to be completely unprepared to this: due to notaries errors
signatures lists from two regions the Sakhalin region and
the Baikal Territory turned out to be invalid.
Another problem was prices on notaries services set absolutely
arbitrarily. Thus, the Notary Chamber of the Astrakhan Region
set a tariff on certification of one signatures collector
amounting to RUR 700 (about USD 23.5) when the same tariff
amounted to only RUR 200 (about USD 6.6) in the neighbouring
regions.
Head quarters for verification of the lists of signatures
was established in YABLOKOs Moscow office. For the past two
weeks 40 people have been working there from morning till
night receiving lists with signatures brought from all over
the country, as the Central Electoral Commission can announce
signatures void due to minor inaccuracies of the subscribers.
You can watch the work of the head quarters in Sergei Mitrokhins
video blog.
