Mr. Putin is the 4th confirmed candidate.

The Central Election Commission of Russia (CEC) has just officially confirmed that Mr. Vladimir Putin is the presidential candidate whose name will be on the ballot in the upcoming Russian presidential election on March 15-17.

“The decision was unanimous,” CEC Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said on January 29.

The 71-year-old Russian president, who has been in power since 2000, is running as an independent candidate. However, he has received support from the United Russia party, which currently controls both houses of the Russian parliament (the State Duma, the lower house, and the Federation Council, the upper house).

The CEC said Putin's campaign had submitted the required number of signatures to support his re-election bid. CEC secretary Natalya Budarina confirmed that, as required by Russian law, 60,000 voter signatures were randomly selected for verification from the 315,000 collected in support of Mr. Putin.

“The verification results show that 91 signatures out of 60,000 were declared invalid due to incorrect voter information. The 91 invalid signatures represent 0.15% of the total number of verified signatures,” Budarina said, confirming that there were no fake signatures. The number of authentic and valid voter signatures is 314,909, “enough for candidates to register to run for election.”

Mr. Putin votes in Moscow, March 18, 2018. In the 2018 Russian presidential election, Mr. Putin won a resounding victory with more than 76% of the vote. Photo: CNN

Thus, Mr. Putin is the fourth presidential candidate to be confirmed by the CEC. Previously, the federal election agency confirmed the candidacy of three Russian parliamentary parties, including Mr. Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Mr. Vladislav Davankov of the New People's Party, and Mr. Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF).

The only candidate who has a chance to run against Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine is liberal Boris Nadezhdin. After collecting more than 200,000 signatures, surpassing the required 100,000, Nadezhdin, 60, plans to submit them to the CEC by January 31, the deadline for that step, according to his website.

For Mr. Putin, the upcoming presidential election will be the fifth in his political career. He was first elected President of Russia in 2000, re-elected in 2004, and then elected again in 2012, after a four-year term as Prime Minister in 2008-2012. He was elected President of Russia for the fourth time in 2018, receiving 76.69% of the vote.

With his approval rating among Russians currently at 80%, according to official polls, Mr Putin is expected to once again win a landslide victory and even surpass his 2018 result. If re-elected in the 2024 vote, Mr Putin will continue to lead Russia until 2030 .

Minh Duc (According to TASS, La Prensa Latina)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/cuoc-dua-tong-thong-nga-ong-putin-la-ung-cu-vien-thu-4-duoc-xac-nhan-a648031.html