( Itar-Tass ) -- The Democratic Party was the first to submit signature lists to the Russian Central Elections Commission on Friday, while a large majority of other participants in the State Duma election race preferred making an election deposit.
United Russia, the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party did not have to do either, as they already have parliament mandates.
In the opinion of experts, the submission of signature lists is rather risky, as the law sets the maximum permissible amount of invalid signatures at 5%.
It is a hard work to collect 200,000 signature lists in regions, and the law does not permit to make an election deposit in case the signature lists are rejected. In fact, it's either or.
The Agrarian Party, the Greens, the Party of Peace and Unity and some others have pledged the collection of signature lists.
The Democratic Party was the sixth to apply for registration of its candidates at the Central Elections Commission. The others are the Communist Party, the Just Russia Party, the Patriots of Russia and the Union of Right Forces. The Liberal Democratic Party was the first client, and received the registration earlier in the day.
The deadline for the submission of documents is 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on October 17. Fourteen political parties have declared their wish to take part in the election campaign, and eight of them have only five days left to make the move.