MOSCOW, February 16 Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission Commission of the Russian Federation Nikolai Bulaev announced the possibility of drawing up an administrative protocol against politician Boris Nadezhdin due to the failure to return funds to those who donated to his campaign.
During the Central Election Commission meeting on Friday, Bulaev said that during the consideration of the issue of registering Nadezhdin as a candidate for the post of President of Russia, on February 8 at 12.49, 1 million 345 thousand 771 rubles remained in his election account, at 13.34, at the end of the discussion, in the account 5000 rubles remained.
«All the rest were withdrawn in cash, as I understand it. At the same time, the debt to return the money illegally received is 1 million 125 thousand 786 rubles. Within 10 days this money was not transferred, was not returned to those who transferred it money… Therefore, as I understand it, we will have to draw up a protocol on an administrative violation either against Boris Borisovich (Nadezhdin) or against the financial ombudsman,” Bulaev said.
Previously, the Central Election Commission refused to register Nadezhdin as a candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation — the proportion of invalid signatures in support of his candidacy turned out to be higher than permissible. The politician filed two lawsuits in the Supreme Court. On Thursday, the court rejected both of Nadezhdin’s claims challenging the form of the list of signature collectors for registering candidates in the presidential election and the form of the list of verification of signature sheets for registering candidates in the presidential election.
The Federation Council has scheduled presidential elections for March 17, 2024. Voting will last three days: March 15, 16 and 17. Four candidates registered by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation are vying for the post of head of state: Leonid Slutsky, Nikolai Kharitonov, Vladislav Davankov and Vladimir Putin.