Yabloko's Oksana Boyarskaya was removed from the State Duma election by the Chelyabinsk Regional Court, the party's regional branch head, Yaroslav Shcherbakov, said. According to him, the ruling was issued without Boyarskaya present - she was in the hospital at the time.
Shcherbakov wrote that when there is information about a valid reason for absence, court proceedings should be postponed until that reason no longer applies. He said the ruling has not entered into force and will be appealed.
The suit was filed by Vladimir Gertye, a candidate from the Greens party. The basis for removing Boyarskaya was the presence of an unidentified male voice on a video. The plaintiff argued the voice could belong to a minor, and the court agreed with him. Shcherbakov noted that the list of grounds for annulling a candidate's registration says nothing about the use of male voices.
Boyarskaya is the fourth single-mandate Yabloko candidate removed out of five nominated in the Chelyabinsk Region. Shcherbakov himself, as well as Andrei Talevlin and Valentina Komkova, were removed earlier. The fifth candidate, Sergei Faryma, may also be removed - on September 11 a court will hear a suit from the Greens seeking his removal.
On the same day, the Tomsk Regional Court granted a suit by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and removed Yabloko's list from the election to the Legislative Duma of the Tomsk Region. The party's press service reported this, noting that the ruling will be appealed. Seven Yabloko candidates continue to run in single-mandate districts in the Tomsk Region.
Yabloko's list remains on the ballot only in the Novgorod Region. The party initially nominated lists in seven regions, and in most of them they were registered.
Yabloko is the only party that opposes the war against Ukraine. The Supreme Court earlier removed its federal list from the election, and courts in various regions are removing single-mandate candidates. About 20 people have been removed in total, with court proceedings continuing for some.
The day before, Yabloko urged its voters not to vote for any of the parties and to invalidate their ballots. Some opposition forces are calling for voting for any party except United Russia, and there are also calls for a boycott of the vote.
Elections to the lower house of the Russian parliament will be held on September 18-20. Six border regions of Russia have been allowed to hold early voting.