“Communists of Russia” and “Party of the Cause” treat their withdrawal from elections in North Ossetia as biased

The “Communists of Russia" and “Party of the Cause” Parties were not allowed to participate in the September elections in North Ossetia under far-fetched pretexts. This was stated by members of the parties’ regional departments, who considered the above the discrimination against non-parliamentary parties.

The regional branch of the “Communists of Russia” Party filed a complaint to the Supreme Court (SC) against the removal from the elections in the republic, reported Spartak Khugaev, the secretary of the party’s branch.

Spartak Khugaev said that “the Central Election Commission (CEC) found fault with the procedure for holding a pre-election conference” of the party at which the list of candidates was approved, although a representative of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) who was present at the conference certified with his signature that everything went according to the law.

According to Spartak Khugaev, when the party conference was held, the supervisory authorities did not find any violations. “Only when we handed over the documents to the Central Election Commission did the claim appear that allegedly we had not got necessary amount of signatures, although there was a quorum,” Spartak Khugaev added.

The decision of the CEC of North Ossetia on the “Party of the Cause” was challenged because “procedurally, it was adopted incorrectly,” party lawyer Anton Grigoriev told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

On August 5, the Central Election Commission of North Ossetia refused to register the list of candidates put forward by the regional branch of the “Party of the Cause”. “The reason for refusal was mentioned as the collection of signatures in a post office (according to Article 5.47 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the collection of signatures at workplaces and in places where salaries, wages, pensions, and social benefits are paid is prohibited). The party says that it is renting a room in the same building where the Russian Post branch is located, and this office is separate from the post office," Anton Grigoriev told the “Caucasian Knot”.

The lawyer described the position of the CEC as “the practice of a ‘rubber seat’.” “There is no other way to call it. We have a separate office, and the Russian Post has a separate one. We did not collect signatures at the Russian Post office. But the court applied [the rule of law], that is, they ‘stretched’ the collection point to the entire building of 1600 square metres,” Anton Grigoriev explained. According to him, such practice is unacceptable and discriminatory.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 2, 2022 at 02:45 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.