Press Release, 27.07.2021

Photo from the official website of the Electoral Commission of the Leningrad Region

The Electoral Commission of the Leningrad Region did not believe the two candidates of Yabloko that they were Yabloko party members and excluded them from the list of Yabloko candidates to the regional parliament. The regional branch of the party and the two candidates Anton Gordyuk and Nikolai Prokudin filed a complaint against this decision to the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation.

“The Electoral Commission expressed doubts that we were real party members,” Yabloko candidate Anton Gordyuk said. “The situation is absurd, as the commission disposed of several documents confirming our membership in the party: a list of party members signed by an authorised person of Yabloko, the minutes of the party meeting and a certificate of my party membership received from the Central Electoral Commission. How else can one confirm his party affiliation?”

According to Anton Gordyuk, all the above documents were submitted to the Electoral Commission of the Leningrad Region, which was duly signed by Sergei Parshikov, the Secretary of the Commission.

The decision to expel Anton Gordyuk and Nikolai Prokudin from the list of Yabloko candidates as the once who failed to confirm their membership in Yabloko was made by the Electoral Commission late on Friday evening, 23 July. According to the law, the commission was obliged to notify the candidates in advance about the absence of any documents, however, this was not done. Yabloko’s complaint has already been submitted to the Central Electoral Commission of Russia and should be considered within five days.

The elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region of the seventh convocation will be held on 19 September 2021, on the single voting day.