Press Release, 7.08.2019

Sergei Mitrokhin, member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, will appeal in court against the refusal to register him as candidate in the Moscow City Duma election. He will not appeal to the Moscow City Electoral Commission again, because he assumes that the Moscow City Electoral Commission “will do the same trick” – instead of registering him, it will send him to the district electoral commission for the third time.

“Certainly, there is the prospect of contacting the Central Electoral Commission,” says Mitrokhin. “But it takes a very long time. Yesterday, we saw how the Central Electoral Commission dealt with appeals about registering other [independent] candidates: everyone was denied [registration]. I have no hope that the Central Electoral Commission will show at least some objectivity regarding my signatures.”

“In this situation I have the only way which, in my opinion, one can count on at least to some extent, it is the judicial system. Although, obviously, one can not fully trust it her either,” Mitrokhin said.

It should be noted that in mid-July the district electoral commission in single-mandate constituency No. 43 refused to register the candidate from Yabloko rejecting more than 10 per cent of voters’ signatures in support of his nomination. Mitrokhin appealed this decision to the Moscow City Electoral Commission. On 30 July, the Moscow City Electoral Commission satisfied the complaint, but did not register the politician in the elections, once again sending him to the district electoral commission.

On 6 August, the Moscow City Electoral Commission examined the complaints of two other candidates from Yabloko – Andrei Babushkin, member of the Human Rights Council, and Yelena Rusakova, head of the Gagarinsky municipal district of Moscow.

Andrei Babushkin’s complaint was rejected. The human rights defender said he would continue to seek his registration through the courts. He also noted that he would seek in the Constitutional Court the abolition of the regional law on the collection of 3 per cent of signatures of district residents for candidates for deputies of the Moscow City Duma.

The final decision on the registration of Yelena Rusakova will be made today, on 7 August. Yesterday, the working group of the Central Electoral Commission also recommended not to satisfy her complaint.

Only three of the eight Yabloko candidates who managed to collect the required number of signatures were registered. They are Yevgeny Bunimovich,  Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Moscow, Maxim Kruglov, expert of Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre, and architect Daria Besedina.