St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly cleanup: Yabloko denied election registration due to "irremediable reprimand"
The St. Petersburg Electoral Commission denied the Yabloko party's application to register its list of candidates for the Legislative Assembly elections. The official reason given was formal challenges to the credentials of the representative who signed the organization's financial report.
The formal reason of the city election commission and the party's position
The party submitted a full set of documents and a financial report within the legally established deadline. However, the electoral commission claimed that Yabloko's authorized representative allegedly lacked the legal authority to sign it. Ultimately, this formality became the formal reason for the complete denial of registration of the opposition list.
"This remark is considered irreversible."
Consequently, the commission took a principled stance, refusing to revise the documents. In turn, party representative Pavel Shapchits stated at the meeting that the presented power of attorney contained an open list of powers and legally fully authorized the signing of financial reports.
Delays and Yabloko's response to the government's decision
Yabloko also noted procedural violations and artificial delays in the process. The commission considered the registration of the candidate list on the very last possible day—July 24—and the draft of the devastating resolution was handed to party representatives just two hours before the meeting.
Therefore, opposition members believe the events are a planned political operation to purge the representative body of disloyal deputies. Party representatives issued a harsh assessment of the actions of the electoral commission members:
"We understood that the St. Petersburg authorities' fight against the only opposition party would be harsh and unlawful; this has happened many times before. They want a parliament that applauds all government initiatives."
As a result, Yabloko's denial of registration leaves the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly without its only systemic opposition faction. The opposition has repeatedly faced similar administrative pressure in previous elections, when candidates were disqualified on formal and technical grounds.
