MOSCOW,Jan21: Russia's Central Electoral Commission has denied registration to three presidential candidates as they failed to submit two million signatures as well as other documents. Rinat Khamiyev, a public figure from Siberia's Orenburg region, and former Vladivostok mayor Viktor Cherepkov, both independents, failed to present the required documents by the end of the workday Wednesday. The leader of the unregistered Volya party, Svetlana Peunova, was denied registration because she had handed in just 234,245 signatures, far below the required two million. She said she would push for an investigation into the other candidates' signatures since "it is impossible to collect two million signatures within 20 days without fraud, just as it is impossible to reach
Moscow from
St. Petersburg on foot within three hours". Under Russia's election rules, candidates nominated by major parties, such as Putin, Zyuganov, Zhirinovsky and Mironov, are not required to collect signatures.
Peunova said she would appeal the commission's decision in court. Alternatively, she demanded two months to collect the signatures.
