Russia Announces Elections | Russia announces presidential election date, who will dare to contest against Putin?

Russia’s presidential election date announced: In a major development, Russian lawmakers have announced March 17 as the date for the country’s 2024 presidential elections. With this, current President Vladimir Putin moves one step closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, voted unanimously to approve a decree setting the date. “In short, this decision marks the beginning of the election campaign,” said Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko. Russia’s Central Election Commission is to hold a meeting on the presidential campaign on Friday.

Although Putin, 71, has not yet announced his intention to run for re-election, now that the date has been set he is widely expected to do so in the coming days. Under the constitutional reforms he pushed through, he is eligible to seek two more six-year terms after the end of his current term next year, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.

No opposition leader could even stand in the Russian elections

Having established tight control over Russia’s political system, Putin is almost certain to win the March elections. Prominent critics who could challenge him on the ballot are either in jail or living abroad, and most independent media are banned.

It is not clear who will challenge Putin on the ballot

Neither the costly, prolonged war in Ukraine nor the failed coup by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last summer appear to have affected his high approval ratings reported by independent pollsters.

Two announce plans to run against Putin

Two people have announced plans to run: former lawmaker Boris Nadezhdin, who holds a seat on a municipal council in the Moscow region, and Yekaterina Duntsova, a journalist and lawyer from the Tver region north of Moscow who was once a local member . Legislature. For both, getting on the ballot could be an uphill battle. Unless one of the five political parties that hold seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, nominates him as their candidate, he will have to collect thousands of signatures in several regions.

According to Russian election laws, candidates fielded by a party that is not represented in the State Duma or in at least one-third of regional legislatures must submit at least 100,000 signatures from 40 or more regions. Those running independently from any party will need at least 3,00,000 signatures from 40 or more constituencies.

How did Putin manage to win the first election?

Those requirements also apply to Putin, who has used different tactics over the years. He ran as an independent candidate in 2018 and his campaign collected signatures. The Kremlin’s United Russia party nominated him in 2012, so they didn’t need him.

The Central Election Commission is planning online voting in addition to traditional paper ballots in about 30 Russian regions and is considering extending voting to three days — a practice that was adopted during the pandemic and has been widely criticized by independent election monitors. Was criticized from.