Moscow (AFP) – Russia’s Central Election Commission on Monday unanimously rejected top opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s bid to run against President Vladimir Putin next year, leading him to urge a boycott of the polls.
The commission voted 12 to zero in barring Navalny from the presidential election, citing a controversial embezzlement conviction for which he received a five year suspended sentence.
Navalny’s crime qualifies as “serious” and therefore rids the individual of the right to stand for president,” said commission member Boris Ebzeyev ahead of the vote, urging the body to bar him from running.
The decision prompted the 41-year-old protest leader — who maintains that the court case against him was fabricated for political reasons — to call for a boycott of the election.
“We are declaring a strike by voters. We will ask everyone to boycott these elections. We will not recognise the result,” Navalny told journalists.
He said he would still appeal the commission’s decision.
Navalny held rallies across Russia Sunday, with more than 15,000 people endorsing his candidacy. He submitted his nomination on Sunday evening and expressed suspicion when the commission announced they would make the decision as quickly as the next day.
In a video published after the decision, Navalny said that offices he set up for his presidential campaign will now turn into a network for the electoral strike.
“To go to polling stations now is impossible and indecent,” he said.
“The main goal of the Kremlin will now be to falsify election turnout,” he said, urging people who want to go to the polling station count the people attending instead of casting a ballot. more here
Something that both the DNC and RNC failed to accomplish here in the US with Donald Trump.
Long Live the Republic.
Sounds like a democracy to me. Just like Iran.
@Left Coast Dan – Sounds like the U.S. to me. One of the most effective ways to fix an election is to control who’s names are printed on the ballot. It happens here all the time and is one of the reasons third parties have to spend so much time and money getting valid petition signatures. The Incumbent Party a/k/a UniParty really hates actual competition.
“Alexei Navalny” is also how you say “Bernie Sanders”
in Russian.
” Russia’s Central Election Commission”
They sound like #NeverTrumpers.
This guy is going to find it increasingly difficult to get life insurance.
Looks like they adapted Hilllary’s stradegy against Bernie to me. Keep him off the ballot.
Also, kind of an irony that the Russkis convicted Alexi of embezzlement yet the USA never nailed Hillary for her many similar acts.
Soon to be found dead, holding what’s left of a polonium 210 cocktail.
Better than a trip to Ft. Marcy Park …
izlamo delenda est …