Press release, 18.07.2016
The Central Electoral Commission has certified YABLOKO’s lists of candidates for the elections to State Duma of the 7th convocation today. The Commission members voted solid. This way, YABLOKO is officially admitted to participation in the election campaign.

YABLOKO Chair, Emilia Slabunova, Deputy Chair, Nikolai Rybakov, parliamentary candidate, Dmitry Gudkov, participated in the meeting.

“It is a big day today – the elections will be held in two months. I hope that an open, fair political discussion will take place within these two months,” Emilia Slabunova noted in her speech before the Central Electoral Commission members.

There must be a real opposition party in the Parliament because only free, fair, open elections and the presence of opposition in the State Duma can provide political stability, Slabunova said. She stressed that explanatory work on the importance of participation in the elections must become a general objective of all the political parties, the Central Electoral Commission and the government.

“It is one more step towards winning the elections (yes, it is optimism, but it is not groundless),” Dmitry Gudkov commented on the news about certification of the election lists.

The federal part of the YABLOKO list includes ten people: Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder and MP in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Emilia Slabunova, YABLOKO Chair and MP in the Karelian Legislative Assembly, Vladimir Ryzhkov, famous politician and professor of the Higher School of Economics, Lev Shlosberg, head of the Pskov branch of YABLOKO, ex-deputy of the Pskov Region Legislative Assembly and journalist, Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO and ex-Chair of the party, Mark Geilikman, head of the party election head-quarters, Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chair of the party and environmentalist, Galina Shirshina, ex-Mayor of Petrozavodsk, Alexander Gnezdilov, Deputy Chair of the party and theatre director, and Dmitry Gudkov, politician and oppositional MP of the State Duma.

The federal list consists of 64 regional groups with 296 candidates (in addition to the top ten).

Also, YABLOKO candidates will run in 172 single-mandate constituencies.

Now YABLOKO has to open a campaign account, get registered and after that the party can conduct a full campaign.