Press release, 30.06.2017

The Regional Council of the Moscow branch of Yabloko nominated 931 candidates for municipal deputies in 119 districts of Moscow on June 29. Next week more candidates will be nominated and it is likely that the party will nominate over a thousand candidates on the whole.

Yabloko’s candidates in 17 districts of Moscow will not have to collect signatures to be registered as candidates by electoral commissions because Yabloko has  representation in the municipal assemblies there. Candidates in other districts will have to collect about 20 signatures (depending on the number of voters in each district) to go through the municipal filter.

Yabloko actively cooperates with former opposition State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov who opened a special website for those want to participate in the forthcoming municipal elections. 71 per cent of people who filled in the form on Gudkov’s website wanted to be nominated by Yabloko.

Chair of the Moscow branch of Yabloko Sergei Mitrokhin said that the municipal elections were very important to the party.

“Despite the fact the powers of municipal deputies were significantly curtailed in Moscow, a mandate of a municipal deputy is a substantial thing. It allows a person to cooperate to the city officials as an equal and it is a great political resource for any party,” he said.

“The presence of Yabloko’s municipal deputies in all the districts will allow to defend the rights and interests of the Muscovites more effectively”, he continued.

“It is also important to have municipal deputies in order to participate in the mayoral elections because a candidate has to collect municipal deputies’ signatures to go through the municipal filter,” Mitrokhin added.

“These elections are extremely important for us. We treat them seriously. We will have our programme, we will carry out an election campaign and we will help everyone who really want to enter municipal assemblies,” he concluded.

Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova and Federal Political Committee Chair Grigory Yavlisnky also spoke about the importance of the forthcoming municipal elections.

Emilia Slabunova noted that nominating candidates was the first victory. According to Slabunova, they started working on the list of candidate for municipal elections a few days after the previous election campaign was over.

“First of all, nearly 1000 candidates is a large number. Yabloko gained 10 per cent in the parliamentary election in Moscow. We appreciate this trust and must justify it,” she said.

But the most important thing is that the party demonstrates its readiness to cooperate because there are a lot of non-partisan candidates.

“Thus, we show and prove that we want and can work with our allies despite the fact whether they are members of Yabloko or not,” she stressed.

Grigory Yavlinsky said that the federal party leadership, the Moscow branch, Yabloko Chair Emilia Slabunova and Deputy Chair Nikolai Rybakov, head of the campaign headquaters Elena Rusakova and Yabloko’s partners Dmitry Gudkov and Maxim Kats worked on the candidates list together. He thanked them for their work. He also thanked Moscow Yabloko Deputy Chair Galina Mikhaleva for coordination of the process.

Yavlinsky stressed that list of candidates that was formed became the symbol of new people coming to politics with Yabloko’s assistance.

“In 2017 a thousand people is ready to sign the Memorandum of Political Alternative – it is a serious political step,” Yavlinsky said.

Yabloko Deputy Chair Nikolai Rybakov spoke about the immediate tasks.

“It is important that the candidates have effective election campaigns and meet as many voters as possible in person. Then we should begin preparing observers for September elections,” he explained.

The municipal elections will take place on 10 September, 2017, in 124 municipal districts of Moscow.