Russia's election commission on Thursday rejected Vladimir Putin's challenger, Boris Nadezhdin's candidature for the upcoming presidential election.
The Central Election Commission declared over 9,000 signatures submitted by Nadezhdin was flawed.
Nadezhdin, 60, has been critical over Putin's full-scale war in Ukraine. He had openly called for a halt to the Ukraine conflict.
After the CEC disapproval, Nadezhdin said that he would appeal to the Supreme Court. He also added that he did not agree with the CEC's decision. "I collected more than 200,000 signatures across Russia. We conducted the collection openly and honestly - the queues at our headquarters and collection points were watched by the whole world," Nadezhdin said on his official Telegram channel.
"Taking part in the presidential election in 2024 is the most important political decision of my life. I am not giving up on my intentions," he added.
Nadezhdin called on his supporters to keep their faith as well. "I ask you not to give up. Something has happened that many people could not believe in: citizens have sensed the possibility of change in Russia," he said.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said CEC's decision to refue Nadezhdin's candidature was in line with all the rules, reported Reuters. "What we heard today from the CEC is that there were a large number of errors in the signatures and a large number of signatures were invalid," he said.
The Russia's election is set to take place in March, in which Putin is expected to win. He chose to run as an independent rather than as the candidate of the ruling United Russia party. Reportedly, Putin had already collected more than 3.5 million.
