Russian LDPR Party Chief Suggests Replacing Election Watchdog Head After Vote

11:04 GMT, 12 March 2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) wants Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Ella Pamfilova replaced after the upcoming presidential vote because of failure to introduce a new debates format, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the party leader and candidate in the election, said Monday.

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"As for the format of debates. We suggested to the CEC to divide the candidates into three groups… But we did not get what we wanted, so we will demand that the head of the CEC is replaced after the election," Zhirinovsky said in his Telegram blog.

The LDPR proposed for each group of the candidates to hold debates on a certain TV channel and to get rid of radio debates or leave them to candidates' representatives.

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Pamfilova said earlier in March that the candidates were unable to reach agreement on the format of the debates on the federal channels, but they had the right to change discussion format on other platforms.

The election will take place this Sunday. The Russians will choose from eight candidates: Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, independent candidate and incumbent President Vladimir Putin, Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak, Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin, Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov, co-founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky, and Zhirinovsky.