Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Russian election officials said Monday they may disqualify anti-Ukraine war candidate Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot in next month's presidential election due to irregularities with the public petition endorsing his candidacy.
The Central Election Commission declared 15% of the 105,000 signatures collected invalid, in excess of the 5% permitted under electoral rules.
The ruling comes two days before the CEC is due to finalize registrations on Wednesday with the former MP's team saying they may go to court to challenge the decision.
"We only need to remove approximately 4,500 signatures out of the 9,209 declared invalid," he said in a post on X, saying his campaign would continue collecting signatures.
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"If the Central Election Commission denies my registration, I will appeal the decision in the Supreme Court," he added.
Nadezhdin becomes the second candidate to face disqualification after independent Yekaterina Duntsova was barred by the electoral commission in December, citing 100 errors with her petition.
President Vladimir Putin, seeking his third consecutive six-year term after a 2021 constitutional amendment allowing two additional terms that could possibly extend his rule through 2036, registered his candidacy Jan. 29 with 91 invalid signatures "due to incorrect information about voters."
The total represented 0.15% of Putin's 315,000 signatures.
The center-right Civil Initiative party's Nadezhdin has become a thorn in the side of Putin's administration through numerous television appearances criticizing the war, which he says is mistaken.
He has also stated that the methods and strategy by which it is conducting the war mean Russia is doomed to failure.
Ahead of Monday's announcement, CEC Deputy Chief Nikolai Bulayev alleged that the names of dead people were among the signatures of endorsement for one of the election candidates, without naming the candidate.
Tens of thousands of Russians lined up around the block outside Nadezhdin's campaign offices in cities across the country, and overseas, to sign his petition, in a very public display of unhappiness with the way the country is being governed.
Nadezhdin is campaigning on a pledge to open peace talks with Kyiv on day one of his administration and free all political prisoners including Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin.
