The Central Election Commission rejected the new application filed by Alexandr Kalinin to have the initiative group in his support as a candidate for President registered. Two CEC members voted in favor of the registration, five abstained, while one voted against, IPN reports.
The application was rejected after the CEC members doubted the fact that Alexandr Kalinin knows the official language as he communicated only in Russian. The CEC members asked Alexandr Kalinin to write one more application for registration in the official language in their presence. Kalinin refused.
Alexandr Kalinin said he presented a number of school and university documents showing that he knows the official language. Even so, he refused to speak it. He also refused the services of a translator provided at the request of a CEC member.
The reason invoked by the CEC for refusing to register the initiative group of Alexandr Kalinin for the first time was that the constitution of this group was initiated earlier that 60 days before the elections, as the legislation requires.
