2023-12-23 15:45:53
Former television journalist Yekaterina Duntsova will not be allowed to run once morest incumbent Vladimir Putin in Russia’s presidential election next March. The Central Election Commission announced on Saturday that the reason was errors in her application to register as a candidate. The ex-journalist wanted to advocate for the end of the war in Ukraine and the release of political prisoners. Meanwhile, the communists nominated political veteran Nikolai Kharitonov.
Duntsova would have needed an initiative group to obtain signatures of support for registration as a candidate for president. According to their supporters, individual letter transpositions in names were interpreted as “serious errors” in the documents.
The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, is considered a close confidant of President Putin. She said: “You are a young woman, you still have everything ahead of you. Every minus can be turned into a plus. Every experience is an experience.” Russian state media had previously linked the journalist to Putin’s opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in exile.
The decision came just three days following Dunzowa submitted her application. Critics of Putin see the rapid negative decision as evidence that no one with oppositional views is allowed to run once morest him in the first presidential election since the start of the war in Ukraine. When Duntsova announced her intention to run last month, observers described her as crazy, brave or part of a Kremlin-orchestrated plan to create the appearance of competition.
Meanwhile, the Russian Communist Party named political veteran Nikolai Kharitonov as its candidate for the presidential election. The candidacy of the 75-year-old Kharitonov was “supported in a secret vote by the overwhelming majority of participants” at a party meeting near Moscow on Saturday, said the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communists, Alexander Yushchenko, according to the Interfax news agency.
Kharitonov, who had already applied for the presidency in 2004, actually has no chance once morest incumbent President Vladimir Putin. Putin is running for his sixth mandate in the election. His re-election is considered a formality, meaning Putin’s term in office would be extended until 2030.
In theory, the Russian communists are an opposition party, in practice they support the Kremlin’s policies. Kharitonov, who has now been named candidate, told journalists with a view to the conflict in Ukraine that his party’s task is to “consolidate the people in the election campaign” so that there is “victory on all fronts.” His program is called “Victory,” he said.
Kharitonov received almost 14 percent of the vote when he first ran for office in 2004. He has been a member of the Russian State Duma since 1993 and has been a communist member since 2008. After the Russian offensive in Ukraine began in February 2022, he was hit with sanctions from the EU, the USA and Canada. For the first time in 20 years, the Communist candidate in the presidential election is no longer 79-year-old party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who has led the party since 1993.
Several candidates close to Putin have already been admitted to the election, scheduled for March 15-17 next year – including the former deputy head of the Duma, Sergei Baburin. However, the founder of the liberal opposition party Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinski, stated on Saturday on the YouTube video portal that his party would not nominate a candidate.
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