RTSun, 24 Dec 2017 18:29 UTC
© Olga Maltseva / AFPSupporters of Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny in St Petersburg on December 24, 2017
Supporters of opposition figure Aleksey Navalny have endorsed him for president in the election scheduled for March 2018, and prepare to send his nomination to the election commission.
The opposition activist won the initial support of 742 people at a gathering in Moscow, above the minimum 500 required to launch a presidential bid. At least 20 cities across the country hosted rallies in his support.
Navalny wrote on his website that he was proud to have become the candidate "from the whole of the country." He tweeted that he and his supporters are currently taking the signatures to the Russian Central Election Commission.
Later Sunday, the commission accepted Navalny's documents for consideration, Russian news agencies reported. The authority now has five days to assess the documentation and make a decision as to whether the submission meets the necessary criteria required for registration.
The opposition figure has called on his supporters to boycott the election if the authorities refuse to register him.
The activist's participation in the election is in doubt, as Russian law stipulates that people convicted of crimes cannot run for president until 10 years after their sentence expires or is officially recognized as served.
In 2014, Navalny was handed a five-year probation period for his role in a $500,000 embezzlement scheme involving the international cosmetics company Yves Rocher. In August, one year was added to that. In addition, Navalny is currently serving a five-year suspended term handed down in 2013 for a fraud scheme involving state-run timber company Kirovles.
The opposition activist has repeatedly said that the law should only apply to custodial sentences, not suspended ones. However, senior Russian officials, such as head of the Central Elections Commission Ella Pamfilova, have dismissed these statements and say that Navalny has no chance of entering the 2018 presidential race.
Comment: The Russian Central Elections Commission rejected Navalny's bid, saying his endorsement and papers were all legal and proper, but that Russian law forbids individuals who have served long prison sentences from becoming presidential candidates. Denied. Navalny responded by calling for polls to be
boycotted:
Navalny addressed the commission with a heated speech asking them "to do the right thing once in their lives" but the head of the body, Ella Pamfilova, harshly replied that she and her colleagues had the same right to hold a political position as everyone else, but the registration procedure was regulated by a clear and unambiguous law.
"You are raising funds illegally and you are turning young people into morons. You can dress me in a uniform or paint a beard on my face in pictures, but I am still ready to meet your voters, despite all insults that you are allowing yourself to make," Pamfilova said at the Central Elections Commission session.
The official was referring to Navalny's practice of fundraising through the internet in which the activist claimed that he had the right to run for presidency. In late November a court in Moscow ruled in favor of a man who demanded that Navalny's elections headquarters return his $860 donation and pay $30 more in court fees. The plaintiff claimed he had donated the money to Navalny's presidential campaign, but after the transfer was completed he learned that Russian law precludes the activist - or indeed any person with an unserved criminal sentence - from becoming a presidential candidate.
At the Sunday convention, Navalny threatened that the rejection of his application for the election would trigger a "voters' strike" and on Monday he called upon other would-be participants of the 2018 race to quit as a sign of protest. In a video message posted on his web-site the activist said that he and his allies would not dissolve the election headquarters but will use it for promotion of ideas seeking to undermine voter turnout as well as general trust in the country's political system. He added a promise to contest the rejection in court. "Definitely, unconditionally we will appeal this decision in a court. In the Constitutional Court and everywhere in the world where it is possible," Navalny told reporters.
I have to keep asking myself, "Are these guys really that stupid or am I missing something ? ?"