Press Release, 29.07.2019

Photo: Ruslan Mutsolgov and Yabloko activists

Candidates for deputies to the City Council of Karabulak, nominated by the Ingush regional branch of the Yabloko party, submitted to the electoral commission the documents and voters’ signatures collected in support of their nomination and required for registration. The territorial electoral  commission of Karabulak will have to check all the submitted documents and signatures, and then make a decision on registration until 3 August.

The list of candidates from the Yabloko party contains 17 candidates: 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 the Ingush branch of Yabloko, noted that Yabloko and its candidates had to collect voters’ signatures twice in order to achieve full compliance with all the rules for the registration of subscription lists and electoral legislation. Despite this, the number of those who wanted to sign up for candidates from Yabloko exceeded the required number of signatures several times both on the first and on the second day of collecting signatures.

“People came from the very early morning and even after we submitted all the signatures to the electoral commission. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who responded to our call,” Ruslan Mutsolgov added.

According to the regional branch of Yabloko, now participation of party candidates in the elections depends on whether the decision of the Karabulak electoral commission will be legal or political. The Ingush Yabloko expresses the hope that the real representatives of the people will be allowed to the election campaign.

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.