16 candidates so far file to run for Russian presidency
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Mr Leonid Slutsky from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia has said his candidacy would not “take away votes” from Mr Vladimir Putin.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
MOSCOW – Sixteen candidates have filed to run for Russia’s presidency in 2024, officials said on Dec 20, in an election that is expected to easily hand Mr Vladimir Putin a fifth term.
Moscow has for years sidelined opposition figures from elections and political life, a clampdown that accelerated after the Kremlin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022.
“So far, we have received applications from 16 candidates for the presidential election,” Central Elections Commission (CEC) chairwoman Ella Pamfilova was cited as saying by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
Mr Putin confirmed earlier in December during a meeting with military veterans that he would join the election, scheduled to be held in 2024 over three days beginning on March 15.
The CEC said it would also hold the ballot in four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russian forces and in the Crimean peninsula, annexed from Kyiv in 2014.
The Kremlin-friendly Liberal Democratic Party of Russia this week nominated a former negotiator for the Ukraine conflict, Mr Leonid Slutsky, as a candidate.
He said his candidacy would not “take away votes” from Mr Putin.
Candidates must file applications to run in the March election by Dec 27, election rules state, after which they will be required to gather thousands of signatures from supporters to secure a place on the ballot.
Mr Igor Girkin, a hardline nationalist turned Kremlin critic who is in detention awaiting trial on extremism charges, has previously said he wanted to challenge Mr Putin.
Jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny was barred from running in elections in 2018 due to an old fraud charge that his allies said was politically motivated. AFP
