Press Release, 24.08.2021

Photo: Ksenia Mikhailova / Photo from the personal archive of Ksenia Mikhailova

The St. Petersburg City Court ordered Territorial Electoral Commission No. 18 to accept documents from Yabloko’s Ksenia Mikhailova and once again consider the issue of her registration as a candidate for the election of deputies to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in single-mandate constituency No. 3 (Petrogradsky District). Initially, the judge of the city court tried to send the case for consideration to the Petrogradskiy District Court, but the appeal court returned the case back to the city court.

On 31 July, Territorial Electoral Commission No. 18 refused to register Mikhailova for the elections to the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg. The reason for the refusal was that Mikhailova allegedly did not submit to the electoral commission a certificate on the expenses of her minor children. However, a full set of documents with the certificate in question was submitted to the commission on 22 July.

On 2 August, two days after the registration was refused, Ksenia Mikhailova decided to submit documents to the electoral commission once again for registration as a candidate to the Legislative Assembly. The working group of Territorial Electoral Commission No. 18 refused to accept the new package of documents. The members of the working group argued their refusal by the fact that this time Mikhailova did not provide the Yabloko party’s decision “on her re-nomination as candidate”.

Ksenia Mikhailova was able to appeal the actions of the electoral commission in the City Court of St. Petersburg. However, she is confident that the electoral commission will once again refuse to register her for the same far-fetched reason, like the one which the working group used for the refusal in accepting her documents – the absence of the party’s decision “on re-nomination for candidates”. It should be noted that there is no such a provision in the electoral legislation as “re-nomination for candidates”. The decision of the Yabloko Party Congress on nomination is valid throughout the entire election period.

The interests of Ksenia Mikhailova and the Yabloko party are represented in court by lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky.

“I think this was done so that I could not create competition for candidates in the elections in my constituency,” Ksenia Mikhailova comments on the situation.

It should be noted that the Yabloko party nominated 25 candidates to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in single-mandate constituencies, 23 Yabloko candidates have already been registered. Ksenia Mikhailova and Ilya Siyalov received refusals in being registered for the elections and are challenging the decisions of the electoral commissions in court.