Today is an important day — we completed the signature collection in Novosibirsk Oblast, where the largest and most difficult signature-gathering campaign took place, and presented the signatures for inspection by journalists and public observers.
A small press conference was held at headquarters, where we once again explained how the signature collection was conducted, what the "Reaper" system is, and how it helped us identify fake signatures and toxic signature gatherers, as well as what enabled us to achieve a perfect result.
I was in Novosibirsk more than a month ago and said that everyone would see that the Democratic Coalition, based on RPR-PARNAS, would run a real election campaign. Today I was very proud to see that no one can say it did not succeed.
A large headquarters operating like a machine. Three hundred signature gatherers collected 17,000 signatures — 1.5% of all voters in the city of Novosibirsk. In the course of the campaign, they visited almost every apartment in the city, and according to our statistics, 100,000 doors were opened to us.
The signatures have been checked repeatedly by handwriting experts and against every database; they are flawless.
A huge thank-you to all the wonderful people making this campaign happen.
We are the only party prepared to show journalists both the signatures and the work process, and to let them speak with any member of the campaign staff.
Interestingly, it was precisely today that an excellent interview with Vyacheslav Volodin was published, in which he said that the results of the 2015 and 2016 elections must be honest and unpredictable; otherwise, "the formation of power loses its sacred legitimacy."
So now we will see whether we will be allowed to take part in those very elections in Novosibirsk, Kaluga, Kostroma, and Magadan.
If we are not allowed to participate, then the counting procedure itself will no longer matter — the elections will cease to be elections.