Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has unanimously approved the registration of Vladimir Putin as a candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, state-run news agency TASS reported on Monday.
The current president is to stand as an independent in the elections set to take place on 17 March. Putin’s election headquarters announced last week that the 300,000 signatures required to run as an independent had been collected. The campaign said it had received over 2.5 million signatures, provided by voters from each of Russia’s regions, including the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
A sample of 60,000 signatures were certified as valid with a discrepancy of 0.15-5% disqualified signatures, according to CEC secretary Natalya Budarina. Of the total 315,000 signatures submitted to the CEC, 91 were disqualified, SOTA reported.
Putin is now the fourth candidate to have his name on the ballot in the March election. Those already approved to run are Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party. Two other political parties, United Russia and For a Just Russia — For Truth decided not to nominate their own candidate and to directly support Putin’s re-election instead.