Candidate to Stavropol Territorial Duma withdraws

Because of the administrative pressure, it is impossible to campaign in Zheleznovodsk, said Alexei Grischenko, who has decided to remove his candidacy from elections to the Stavropol Territorial Duma.

Alexei Grischenko, a candidate from the "Yabloko" Party, submitted his withdrawal application to the territorial election commission (TEC) of Zheleznovodsk on September 12, but he has not received an official notification about the withdrawal yet, he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on September 16.

He explained the reason for his withdrawal as "the impossibility of campaigning in Zheleznovodsk." Thus, his party filed a statement with a request to allocate places in the city for disseminating the campaign materials, but received a refusal, said Grischenko.

"I didn't even see sense to print anything, because there was no place to distribute materials. Naturally, there is no reason at all to take part in this unequal struggle," he said.

In his application, he also drew attention of the TEC to the information about campaigning in city schools. Thus, according to Grischenko, pupils were given daybooks with the logo of the pro-governmental candidate; and in the village of Inozemtsevo children received sacks for changeable shoes with the logo and the name of the same candidate. Besides, in the Mineralnye Vody District, on September 1 all the children were given newsletters of one of pro-governmental candidates, the "Notepad-Stavropol" quotes the Grischenko's application.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.