The Central Commission for Elections and Referenda accredited 25 media outlets for participation in the election campaign. However, the list may grow despite the deadline for submission of documents.
It is noted that from June 14 to July 4, 2017, the CEC received 255 notifications of the intention of the media and Internet publications to participate in the election campaign.
At the meeting on July 7, 2017, it approved applications for the accreditation of three television companies, three radio stations, 43 printed media and nine Internet outlets.
Two applicants were denied accreditation. The rights to participate in election campaigning were lost by Nur-Press LLC, as there was no information about the site on which the campaign materials will be posted. One more LLC — Zhiger — stated that it is going to place propaganda materials during the election campaign on the main page of the Russian website Yandex. However, this contradicts to parts 15 and 16 of Article 22 of the constitutional law on elections. Foreign citizens and organizations do not have the right to conduct campaigning.
CEC member Kairat Osmonaliev proposed to allow latecomers to accreditation to participate in elections. He reminded that the campaigning will start only on September 15. CEC Chairwoman Nurzhan Shayldabekova partially supported the proposal.
«I propose to consider this issue individually," she said.
