Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov speaks to the media outside the office of the Central Election Commission in Moscow January 16, 2008. Kasyanov, hoping to prevent any attempts to sabotage his bid to become president, showed off on Tuesday what he said were the signatures of 2.2 million voters supporting his candidacy. The letters read: "Kasyanov 2008".
Photo: Reuters
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Kasyanov Submitted Signatures to Be Registered Presidential Candidate
Once the prime minister in Russia and today’s leader of Russian People’s Democratic Union, Mikhail Kasyanov has submitted voters’ signatures to the RF Central Election Commission, Nikolay Konkin, who is the secretary of Central Executive Committee at Russian People’s Democratic Union, told RBC. The signatures are needed to register Kasyanov’s bid to become president.
Central Election Commission has ten days to study the documents and make the decision based on checking the signatures. The requirements are rather tough. Under the laws, the number of non-acceptable signatures shouldn’t exceed 5 percent.
But the followers of former PM are optimistic. Kasyanov’s bid included over 2 million votes supporting his candidacy.
The deadline for submitting the signatures’ lists is January 16, 6:00 p.m., MSK, so the leader of Democratic Party of Russia, Andrei Bogdanov, is also expected to arrive today with the voters’ signatures.
Unlike candidates of State Duma parties that don’t have to collect signatures in their support, all other candidates, including the independent ones, had two weeks to attract at least 2 million voters.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky were registered by the Central Election Commission late in 2007. Putin’s favored candidate, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev handed in the documents January 14, 2008 and the Central Election Commission will probably consider them this week. Presidential elections in Russia are slated for March 2, 2008.
www.kommersant.com
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