YABLOKO’s candidate Emiliya Slabunova withdrawn from mayoral elections in Petrozavodsk
Press Release, August 23, 2013
At Thursday, August 22, Petrozavodsk City Court annulled the decision of the Electoral Commission on registration of Emiliya Slabunova, YABLOKO’s candidate for the Mayor of Petrozavodsk, the Republic of Karelia. Emiliya Slabunova is also member of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia and member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee. She was considered to be one of the strongest candidates at the mayoral election.
The law suit against Slabunova was initiated by Yury Shabanov, another candidate for the post of Mayor and a former member of the ruling United Russia party. He gave to the court some formalities for withdrawal of Slabunova from the election: that her employment record book was of an old style and thus allegedly can not serve as a confirmation of her place of work (she is a director of the Lyceum No 1), and her academic degree (a PhD) was not specified in her employment record book stating only “higher education”, and there were also claims regarding her financial statement signed by Slabunova’s financial commissioner rather than herself. Slabunova was withdrawn from the election by the court despite the fact that the Electoral Commission pledged that there decision to register Slabunova in the election had been correct and lawful.
YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin said that the grounds for cancellation of Slabunova’s registration were “factitious”. “It is obvious that here we all observe that an oppositional politician Emiliya Slabunova is withdrawn from the election,” Mitrokhin noted.
“I was ousted from the election only because I was leading in the race being far ahead of the acting Mayor. I am supported by the majority of the population. The court merely fulfilled the political will of the authorities,” said Emiliya Slabunova commenting the decision of the court. She also added that she would appeal to the Supreme Court of Karelia.
On August 16, a mass-scale rally in support of YABLOKO’s candidate took place in Petrovazodsk.
Last week, Vara Perfyonova, YABLOKO member and director of a school in Derevyansk, was refused registration as a candidate for the head of Prionezhsky region, Karelia. Earlier courts had have removed from elections leader of the Moscow Region YABLOKO Alexander Gunko running for the Mayor of Klimovsk; leader of the Maritime Territory branch of YABLOKO Nikolai Markovtsev running for the Mayor of Vladivostok; and Yevgeny Vitishko, YABLOKO candidate running for the head of administration of the Tuapse District, the Krasnodar Region.
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Posted: August 23rd, 2013 under Elections, Regional and Local Elections.