Press Release, 23.07.2019

The conference of the Ingush regional branch of the Yabloko party nominated a list of candidates for deputies of the Karabulak City Council. On July 22, the Territorial Electoral Commission of the city of Karabulak certified the list of candidates for deputies of the City Council nominated by Yabloko.

The candidates of the Ingush Yabloko have a few days to collect voters’ signatures in their favour so that be registered by the Electoral Commission. Yabloko activists say they are certain that they will cope with this task despite the tough deadlines.

The list of candidates from the Yabloko party contains public figures and civil activists, including members of the popular protest movement against changing the borders of the republic in favour of the neighbouring Chechnya.

Ruslan Mutsolgov, Chairman of Ingush Yabloko, recalled that in June 2019, on the eve of the announcement of the start of the municipal elections, the Ingush regional branch of the Yabloko party announced its intention to boycott the elections. However, the situation changed, some of the developments aggravated what was happening around the public protest and the authorities launched repressions against the residents of the republic. These events convinced the activists of the Ingush Yabloko that they have to participate in the elections.

“For many years, they have been trying to convince us that nothing depends on the residents of the republic, that “the right people ” will be brought to power “anyway”, that citizens do not decide anything and have no right to even think and dream about anything else. The faith of people that something really depends on them should be restored, as well as the confidence in their own abilities, ” Ruslan Mutsolgov said.

“It is very important to ensure that the elections are honest by observing them on the election day. The votes of those who come to the polls should not be stolen by means of fraud,” the chairman of the Ingush Yabloko stressed.

The municipal elections are to be held in Ingushetia on September 8, with the exception of the town of Sunzha, where the elections of deputies of the city council were held a year ago.

Yabloko was the only party that supported the mass-scale protest of thousands of the residents of Ingushetia against amendments to the constitutional law on referendum, allowing the authorities of the republic to solve the issues of the region’s borders without the consent of its residents. Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman, arrived in Magas, capital of the Repulic, and spoke at a rally in support of the demands of the residents of the republic. One of the organisers of the protest action was the leader of the Ingush regional branch of the party, Ruslan Mutsolgov.