Russian opposition rejected for Moscow election, next rally planned

Russia’s Central Election Commission on August 7 upheld previous rulings to bar two prominent opposition figures from running in the September 8 elections to the Moscow city council.

The main election board’s decision came after hearing complaints lodged by politician Dmitry Gudkov and Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Foundation that is headed by Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny.

“You are driving people onto the streets,” Sobol told elections officials after her appeal was denied while engaged in a shouting match. “You are stealing the election.”

Altogether, 19 independent and opposition figures have filed complaints to get on the ballot for a spot in the 45-seat Moscow legislature, which oversees a yearly budget of more than $40 billion.

Moscow has witnessed multiple protests since early July when the registration refusals started. Election officials claim that some of the 5,500 required signatures candidates had collected to get on the ballot were invalid.