01-28-2008, 04:07 PM
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| The Poet Homeless | | Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: rural Central California
Posts: 52
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| LAT: Kasyanov booted from ballot, calls for presidential-election boycott
Quote:
Russian Presidential Candidate is Booted From the Race
Election panel says former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov had ballot-qualifying signatures forged. He denies it.
January 28, 2008
MOSCOW — The most outspoken opposition politician vying for the Russian presidency was thrown out of the race Sunday, accused by elections officials of forging tens of thousands of signatures.
The disqualification of former Prime Minister Mikhail M. Kasyanov was immediately decried by opposition figures and analysts, who said the decision was a politically motivated attempt to silence a vocal critic of the government and maintain an image of uncontested Kremlin popularity.
Russia's Central Election Commission accused Kasyanov's campaign of forging more than 80,000 of the signatures needed to get onto the ballot, and the panel unanimously voted to disqualify him from the race. Running as an independent, Kasyanov needed a minimum of 2 million signatures in order to register as a candidate for the presidency.
On Sunday, Kasyanov denied any forgery, and accused President Vladimir V. Putin of blocking him from the race.
"I have no doubt that Putin personally made the decision not to register my candidacy," he said in a statement...
...Stanislav Belkovsky, director of the Moscow-based National Strategy Institute [said], "The presence of such a person as Kasyanov would seed some doubt in the minds of the constituents, and that's something the Kremlin can't afford"...
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