Volunteers are collecting signatures for registration of
Grigory Yavlinsky as candidate for President of Russia among
Russian citizens living or working abroad. Collection of signatures
is held in seven European countries, the US and Canada. So
far, none of other Russian parties and candidates have attempted
to collect signatures of Russian citizens living or working
abroad.
Russian citizens working in the UK, France, Germany, Finland,
Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, USA and Canada wrote to YABLOKO
with a proposal to collect signatures among compatriots abroad.
As in Russia, volunteers are collecting signatures abroad
for free, despite of complicated bureaucratic procedure of
attesting the sheets with signatures at consulate departments
and their expensive dispatch to Moscow.
The main difficulty is that so far none of the parties and
candidates have collected signatures abroad. Volunteers often
have a lot of questions and even the staff of the Central
Electoral Commission whom YABLOKO turned to for consultations
could not always answer them.
In accordance with the Russian law all the sheets with signatures
have to be attested by a consul. Then they have to be filed
and the total of the sheets and signatures have also be attested
by a consul.
The cities where YABLOKO volunteers collect signatures are
as flows:
London, the UK,
Paris, France,
Hamburg, Bremen, Germany,
Prague, the Czech Republic,
Brussels, Belgium,
Zurich, Switzerland,
Copenhagen, Denmark,
Washington, Seattle, Los Angeles, the US,
Montreal, Canada
The Russian law requires for a candidate from a non-parliamentary
party to collect and submit by January 18 to the Central Electoral
Commission at least 2 million of signatures in favour of his
nomination to run in the campaign. Moreover, such a campaign
for collection of signatures should be conducted by a party
nominating its candidate in at least 40 Russian regions, whereas
the number of signatures collected in each of the regions
should not exceed 50,000. Collection of signatures for registration
in the election campaign began on December 23 and will go
through January 14.
See also:
Presidential
Elections 2012
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