Press release, 21.08.2017

On 18 August, Sovetsky district court upheld the decision of the territorial electoral commission on the withdrawal of Oleg Rodin, deputy Chair of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of Yabloko, from the elections to the city parliament.

Earlier the territorial electoral commission of the Sovetsky district, Nizhny Novgorod, refused to register Deputy Chair of the regional Yabloko branch Oleg Rodin as candidate for a deputy of the city parliament. The head of the commission Alexei Kamrakov refused to listen to the people who came to the meeting to confirm their signatures. He said they had had no right to participate in the meeting. Nine people whose signatures were declared “forged” came to the meeting on purpose to certify their signatures in person. Twelve people forwarded written appeal requests to the commission in order to certify their signatures in support of the candidate.

All these people also came to the court hearing. The court interrogated five of them and a territorial electoral commission member as witnesses but refused to summon the remaining 27 people, whose signatures in support of Rodin’s candidacy were declared to be “forged”. The court also refused to authorise and independent examination.

Oleg Rodin considers his withdrawal from the elections a dangerous precedent. “The current legislation allows electoral commissions to consider any signature as “forged” on the authority of some expert’s opinion and it is impossible to prove the contrary,” he says.

Oleg Rodin will appeal against the decision.