Election Commission approves 18 candidates for president

The Central Election Commission approved 18 candidates to run in the presidential elections in January as of yesterday. Brad Wells: The deadline for submitting applications to get on the ballot was November 9. According to local media sources, the CEC still has several applications to consider, but none of the would-be candidates have submitted the required UAH 2.5 mln deposit, making them all likely to get thrown out. The new deposit requirement appears to have had the desired effect – narrowing the field of potential candidates to 18; in 2004 there were 26 candidates registered to compete in the last presidential election. All of the front-runners in recent public opinion surveys received the CEC’s blessing to run, including Viktor Yanukovych, Yulia Tymoshenko, Sergiy Tigipko, Arseniy Yatseniuk and Viktor Yushchenko. Perhaps the highest profile candidate to not make the cut is Natalia Vitrenko, the #5 vote-getter in the 2004 election and ardent pro-Russia advocate, who failed to offer up the full deposit.