Candidate for post of Khimki mayor denies election campaigning violations
MOSCOW. Sept 25 (Interfax) - Oleg Shakhov, a candidate for the post of mayor of the city of Khimki, has denied violating the election campaigning regulations.
"Everything we have been doing is legal. Our task is to hold fair and transparent elections, as regards the voting day and the pre-election period," Shakhov told Interfax on Tuesday.
Shakhov said the publications on him posted by Khimkinskiye Novosti were devoted to him as acting mayor of the city, not as a prospective mayor. "Khimkinskiye Novosti published materials on my work as Khimki mayor. After I went on vacation, all publications stopped as per the current legislation," he said.
Yevgeniya Chirikova, an environmental activist and candidate for the post of mayor of the city of Khimki, earlier announced her intention to file a lawsuit against Shakhov, whom she accuses of violating the electoral legislation.
"Administrative resources have been used heavily in Khimki since the first days of the election campaign. There are reports on illegal election campaigning in factories and enterprises and on total destruction of alternative candidates' election campaigning materials by guest workers. All facts are being collected and recorded," the movement Environmental Defense of the Moscow Region told Interfax on Tuesday.
The movement believes Shakhov is using Knimkinskiye Novosti in "illegal election campaigning activities, not paying for it from his election fund and disguising this election campaigning as 'media coverage of a local self-government official.'"