RUSSIA BARS NAVALNY FROM STANDING AGAINST PUTIN
MOSCOW— Russia’s Central Election Commission on Monday unanimously rejected top opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s bid to run against President Vladimir Putin next year, leading him to urge a boycott of the polls.
The commission voted 12 to zero in barring Navalny from the presidential election, citing a controversial embezzlement conviction for which he received a five-year suspended sentence.
Navalny’s crime qualifies as “serious” and therefore rids the individual of the right to stand for president, said Boris Ebzeyev, a commission member.
Call for boycott
The decision prompted the 41-year-old protest leader, who maintained that the court case against him was fabricated for political reasons, to call for a boycott of the election.
“We are declaring a strike by voters. We will ask everyone to boycott these elections. We will not recognize the result,” Navalny told journalists.
Suspicion
He said he would appeal the commission’s decision.
Navalny held rallies across Russia on Sunday, with more than 15,000 people endorsing his candidacy. He submitted his nomination on Sunday evening and expressed suspicion when the commission announced they would make the decision as quickly as the next day.
Falsify turnout
After the decision, Navalny said that the offices he set up for his presidential campaign would now turn into a network for the electoral strike.
“To go to polling stations now is impossible and indecent,” he said. “The main goal of the Kremlin will now be to falsify election turnout.”