Boris Nadezhdin, 60, sparked queues all over Russia in January when supporters submitted signatures so he could be registered as an official candidate in the presidential election. On Wednesday, he handed in more than the 100,000 required signatures to the Central Election Commission, which is expected to rule next week on whether he will be allowed to stand.
Now his hopes of challenging the current president could be dashed by claims that the signatures are from deceased individuals.
But why would they? They’re going to fake the election result anyway. Wouldn’t it look better for propaganda reasons to have at least some opposing candidates?
Belarus just had a popular position candidate for presidential elections. When the results were shown it ended up in huge protests in the country, which very well might have removed Lukashenka from power. The reason they did not was Putin sending his troops to crush it.
If you have something similar in Russia today, you have the army fighting in Ukraine, the economy is in a dumpster fire, Ukraine and the West are going to help the protestors and there is nobody to march in and crush the protests. In addition to that the number of different armed groups in Russia has increased a lot and chances are some are unhappy with Putin. Wagner marched on Moscow after all.
So best choice is to not have an election at all. However that chance is gone now. Calling it off would make Putin look like he knows he would loose. So he has to fake it and the best way to do it is to have no actual competitor, who could win besides him.
They saw how it ended in Belarus in 2020 and don’t wanna repeat.
The thing about this is that despite how well Putin’s iron fist is clenched around the neck of Russia, one fatal mistake and you’ll see Moscow burn, oligarchs and their children murdered in their homes, ranks falling apart, etc.
People have their limits, and when reached, expect Molotov cocktails to be thrown around like confetti at a wedding.
Wouldn’t it look better for propaganda reasons to have at least some opposing candidates?
Yes, that’s why propaganda talk shows there always have a guest with a somewhat critical tone. Obviously that one always loses the debate.
I wonder what would happen if the 100 000 deceased individuals were to show up in person at the central election comission
Their status could be swiftly adjusted?
Of course they can. They don’t even need it to be true.
Seems like a show to give election at least some appeal of legitimacy.
Shitty electoral system at risk of being exploited. More at 11.
Only this time its Russia doing the exploit. Which is shit, but the problem is deeper than “Russia bad”.
I’m curious, what are the other electoral systems you’re talking about?
Of course the problem is deeper than “Russia bad”. Which is probably why, before this comment of mine, literally no other commenter mentioned “Russia bad”.
Well, I guess now there’s two of us.
