MOSCOW - Russian opposition politician and blogger Alexei Navalny has said that, in his view, the decision to bar the PARNAS Party from elections to the regional parliament in the Novosibirsk region could be a prologue to changes in election laws that will lead to some parties losing pre-election privileges.
“We are not ruling out that this decision to bar [a party] from the regional parliament is simply a prelude to a legal change and some parties simply being stripped of the so-called pre-election privilege. Whether or not they will be stripped is a second question but, one way or another, we do have the right to take part in elections and to exercise political representation of millions of people, and we will exercise it,” Navalny told reporters on Aug. 7.
By law, to register their candidates and party lists of candidates in regional and municipal elections, parties are required to gather a set number of voter signatures.
There is an exemption from this procedure for parties which mustered at least 3% of the vote in the previous elections or won at least one seat in a regional legislature, local self-administration or rural representative body.
