Yekaterina Duntsova, a journalist who opposed the war on Ukraine, was namebanned by Russia's Central Election Commission three days after she filed her candidacy | Photo: EFE/EPA/STRINGER
Like any autocrat, Vladimir Putin only likes to take part in “elections” in which his victory is guaranteed. This was proven again over the weekend when the name of former TV journalist and independent precandidate Yekaterina Duntsova, who opposed the war on Ukraine, was blocked by Russia's Central Election Commission.
She will therefore not be able to run in the presidential election in March, when Putin will have to be reelected to rule until 2030 (between the presidency and the office of prime minister, he has ruled the country since 1999).
Duntsova's name was vetoed three days after she filed her candidacy. The official reason given by the Central Election Commission is that its registration form for participation in the competition contained errors.
“You are a young woman, you have your whole life ahead of you. Anything negative can always be turned into something positive. “Any experiment is still an experiment,” said the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, after the decision. Duntsova appealed to the Supreme Court of Russia.
This Tuesday (26), Pamfilova told the Tass agency that more than 30 people had registered for the presidential election. “Of course the election campaign will be competitive because it is clear that there will be more than one candidate,” explained the coordinator.
However, analysts are already predicting that March's elections will be similar to previous ones: only front candidates or minor opposition candidates should be allowed to run, which would pave the way for Putin to stay in the Kremlin.
“Inconvenient” candidates have also been vetoed in previous elections, and the most emblematic case was that of opponent Alexei Navalny, who was barred from running in 2018. He almost died from poisoning in 2020 and was arrested upon his return to Russia in 2021.
In August this year, Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison for creating an “extremist” group, financing extremist activities and other crimes. He was already serving an 11andahalfyear prison sentence for fraud and other charges.
But it's not just in the presidential election that the Central Election Commission, which reports to Putin, usually blocks names that could stand up to him. In the 2021 elections to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, Navalny's allies withdrew from the race or were expelled, citing the argument that they were part of an “extremist” organization.
Other preliminary candidates were vetoed, such as opposition figure Yulia Galyamina, because she was convicted in December 2020 of holding protests that violated Russian laws.
The “routine purge” before the elections, combined with the notorious lack of transparency in the country's electoral process, has already given Putin and his allies victory: In August, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that “theoretically” the 2024 presidential election could be held given the Favoring the current president doesn't even happen.
“Our presidential election is not really a democracy, it is an expensive bureaucracy […]. “Mr Putin will be reelected next year with more than 90% of the vote,” the spokesman said.
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