Press Release, 11.09.2020

The Second Court of Appeal of St.Petersburg did not satisfy the complaint of Yabloko candidate Oleg Mandrykin against the refusal of the electoral commission to register him as a candidate for Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region.

On August 7, the electoral commission of the Arkhangelsk region refused to register Oleg Mandrykin as a candidate for Governor of the Arkhangelsk region. According to the electoral commission, Mandrykin allegedly did not pass the municipal filter (i.e. collect the required number of signatures of municipal deputies in favour of his nomination; whereas one municipal deputy can give his/her signature only for one candidate and signatures should be collected virtually from all the municipalities in the situation of predominance of United Russia party deputies who give their signatures only to their party candidates).

However, Mandrykin appealed to the regional court against the refusal of the electoral commission to register him in the elections. In the statement of claim, Mandrykin cited numerous facts of abuse in the collection of signatures of municipal deputies by the acting head of the region, Alexander Tsybulsky, and other candidates, who had been nevertheless registered.

At the end of August, the Arkhangelsk Regional Court rejected Oleg Mandrykin’s claim against the regional electoral commission’s refusal to register him as a candidate for Governor. The politician filed an appeal against the decision of the Arkhangelsk Regional Court.

In February 2020, entrepreneur and environmental activist Oleg Mandrykin won the People’s Governor electronic vote from the Stop-Shies environmental coalition, which includes 36 organisations opposing construction of the largest European landfill in the region.