2018 election: Russia election commission receives 51 notifications

The Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) has received 51 notifications from aspirants running in the 2018 presidential election.

The CEC chairperson, Ella Pamfilova said on Thursday: “since Dec. 18 up until this morning, the commission has received notifications about the holding of mass events related to the nomination of candidates for the position of the Russian president from 51 entitie, from 21 parties and 30 self-nominees.”

Pamfilova said at a CEC session that nominees from five parties have already opened special bank accounts for gathering their campaign funds.

“They all have a right to carry out fully-fledged campaigning, except for campaigning in the media,” the CEC head explained.

After the CEC registers a nominee’s group of supporters and his representatives for dealing with financial issues, as well as authorises the opening of a special bank account for the campaign fund, the nominee must start collecting signatures.

The list with the voters’ signatures, the statement about absence of foreign assets, and the confirmation of the opening of the special bank account, among other documents, should then be submitted to the CEC, which will have 10 days to check the documents, and make a decision on whether to register the nominee as a presidential candidate.

The Russian presidential election is scheduled for March 18, 2018.