Politician Boris Nadezhdin submitted 105,000 signatures endorsing his presidential bid to the Central Election Commission, as observed by a correspondent from '7x7' on January 31. Nadezhdin, known for his anti-war stance, pledged to end the conflict in Ukraine and release political prisoners if elected.
Anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin has submitted the signatures of 105,000 individuals supporting his bid to the Central Election Commission. Currently, the CEC has until February 10 to decide whether to register him as an official candidate. Nadezhdin has, in total, collected 208,000 voter signatures.
The girl who introduced herself as Daria Bunkova, the supervisor of Nadezhdin’s Moscow headquarters, claimed to '7x7' that 30,000 of the submitted signatures are allegedly 'fake.' According to Bunkova, these signatures did not originate from the Moscow headquarters but were delivered to the CEC from another location.
Nadezhdin brushed off Bunkova’s allegations as 'fake news,' implying that she might be talking about signatures from a particular collection point that did not undergo a thorough examination.
"Over the past few days, individuals at the signature verification points have been working round the clock, nearly without breaks. Due to the huge influx of visitors, we haven’t always been able to promptly confirm and process salary payouts. Unfortunately, this stressful environment has become fertile ground for suspicions, conflicts, and grievances to emerge," noted the headquarters' press office.
The organization's representatives clarified that multiple verification centers were established to assess the quality of signatures. Some employees were surprised upon discovering the existence of other divisions.
As of now, the Central Election Commission has registered four candidates: Vladimir Putin (as an independent candidate), Leonid Slutsky (representing the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), Nikolay Kharitonov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and Vladislav Davankov from 'New People.'
In 2023, the CEC declined to register the initiative group of another anti-war candidate, Ekaterina Duntsova, who eventually chose to support Boris Nadezhdin’s campaign.
