Press Release, 8.08.2024

Photo: Vladimir Dorokhov at the Tula Region Electoral Commission / Photo from social media

On 7 August, Yabloko presented its objections to the regional electoral commission concerning the results of verification of 2,361 signatures of city residents in support of the Yabloko list of candidates. Yabloko was going to campaign under the slogan “For Peace and Freedom!” The Yabloko team demanded that 86 signatures out of 235 marked as defective by the electoral commission be recognised as valid and, thus, the percentage of defective signatures be reduced to the passing threshold.

The Electoral Commission agreed to return only 21 signature, and the number of invalid signatures decreased from 11.05% to 10.15%, whereas the passing threshold is 10%. The party is confident that the registration of the list of candidates from Yabloko was denied for political reasons.

Vladimir Dorokhov, a candidate for the Tula City Duma in single-mandate electoral district No. 12 and leader of the Tula Yabloko, was also denied registration: the commission rejected 16 voters’ signatures out of the total 127 submitted by Dorokhov. It should be noted that the electoral commission found “invalid” the signatures of people whose names were changed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs database, but the commission considered that the “correct” names were that with errors in the database. This already happened with the signature sheets for the Yabloko candidates list.

“Those responsible for the politics in the region think that this is a demonstration of their strength. But in fact, this is a clear demonstration of their absolute weakness,” Vladimir Dorokhov commented on the regional government’s fight with Yabloko.

Now the Tula Yabloko team is thinking about the feasibility of appealing the electoral commission’s decision in court.