Press Release, 30.07.2024

Photo: Vladimir Dorokhov at the Tula Regional Electoral Commission / Photo from social media

In two weeks, the Yabloko branch in Tula collected 2,316 voters’ signatures in support of the nomination of Yabloko candidates for Peace and Freedom for the elections to the city parliament. Within ten days, the electoral commission must make a decision on registration of the candidates.

There are 18 people on the Yabloko list of candidates for the City Duma. The list is topped by the leader of the Tula branch of the party, businessman Vladimir Dorokhov.

Vladimir Dorokhov, Chairman of the Tula branch of Yabloko, notes that collecting more than 2,000 signatures in two weeks was not easy, given the hot summer in Tula and the general atmosphere of fear fueled by officials. Therefore, the Yabloko team failed to get 6,500 signatures from residents of the region to register the list of candidates for the regional Duma.

“If we had two or three more weeks to collect signatures, we would have collected enough signatures for registration of the party regional list of candidates. But the deadline was very tight, and it is summer, and people have become afraid to provide their passport details. And the authorities have been still trying to play on this. For example, on the day we began to collect signatures in Yasnogorsk, the local head of the administration Mukhin published a post warning people not to give anyone their passport data, and without this data, the voter’s signature will not be recognised as valid,” Vladimir Dorokhov wrote in his Telegram channel. The politician also noted that the cost of notary services in elections has increased 15 times over the past five years.

“Having managed to collect passport data of over 2,000 people under tight deadlines (two weeks), the July heat and the general atmosphere of fear is truly a success,” Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov commented on the results of the signature collection campaign in Tula.

Vladimir Dorokhov have also tried to participate in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections. However, Yabloko’s candidate “For Peace and Freedom”, having received the support of citizens in the city elections as part of the Yabloko list, was not supported by a sufficient number of deputies to pass the municipal filter.