Politics

Putin officially registered for March presidential race

Moscow, Jan 29 (EFE).- Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially been registered as a candidate for the upcoming presidential elections on March 17, as he seeks a fifth six-year term to lead the Kremlin, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The Central Election Commission (CEC) said Putin’s campaign submitted the required number of signatures endorsing his re-election bid.

The poll commission reported a minimal 0.15 percent of invalid signatures out of the 60,000 analyzed, well below the maximum allowable limit of 5 percent.

Putin’s team had previously claimed to have collected over two million signatures, a figure challenged by the opposition, questioning the absence of queues outside the presidential administration headquarters nationwide.

Putin, 71, who has been at the helm since 2000 with a brief hiatus as prime minister from 2008 to 2012, is running as an independent candidate. However, he has garnered support from the Kremlin party, United Russia, which controls both chambers of the Russian Parliament.

Despite earlier assurances that he would not seek re-election, Putin amended the constitution in 2020 to allow him run for re-election, potentially allowing him to remain in the Kremlin until 2036.

With an approval rating of 80 percent among Russians, according to official polls, Putin is expected to secure a victory surpassing his 2018 results of over 76 percent of the votes.

The CEC had earlier registered three candidates: communist Nikolai Kharitonov, ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky, and New People party representative Vladislav Davankov.

The sole candidate opposing the Russian military campaign in Ukraine with a chance of registration is liberal Boris Nadezhdin. Having gathered over 200,000 signatures, surpassing the required 100,000, Nadezhdin plans to submit them on Jan. 31, the final day of the deadline, as indicated on his website.

Analysts, however, express pessimism as the Kremlin has signaled its reluctance to allow a candidate advocating for peace to participate in the elections. EFE

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