A judge in western Siberia’s Tomsk region has disqualified the liberal Yabloko party’s list of candidates from the upcoming regional assembly elections, the party said Friday, though candidates running in single-member districts remain on the ballot.
Authorities have now invalidated or denied registration for Yabloko candidate lists in seven regions across Russia. The northwestern Novgorod region is the only remaining region where list candidates can still run for office.
A judge from the Tomsk Regional Court sided with the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), which accused Yabloko of copyright violations, exceeding campaign spending limits and using banned social media websites.
Yabloko, which accused LDPR of filing a “copycat” lawsuit amid widespread pressure on the party ahead of next week’s elections, said it would appeal the decision.
Seven Yabloko candidates running in single-member constituencies in Tomsk remain on the ballot.
At the national level, Yabloko candidates campaigning in single-member districts are still allowed to run for office after Russia’s Supreme Court last month ruled to cancel the registration of the party’s federal slate of candidates for the State Duma.
But Yabloko candidates competing in single-member districts are also beginning to see their campaigns cut short due to disqualification.
On Wednesday, the party said courts across several regions received last-minute lawsuits seeking to bar its members from running in the State Duma elections.
Yabloko said 17 of its single-member district candidates could be stripped of their registration if the court rulings are upheld, leaving the party represented in 104 single-member races nationwide.
The party also faces the risk of being stripped of its official registration due to legal requirements to field candidates in at least 20% of regional assembly elections or 10% of gubernatorial races every seven years.
Yabloko is Russia’s oldest liberal party and is the only registered party campaigning on a pro-peace platform.
