Article 34 of the Law on Presidential Elections in Russia establishes a complicated mechanism for the naming of candidates, which includes the provision that each one of them has to present a million signatures of citizens backing their candidacy. This means that the formal naming takes place step by step, as they fulfil this requisite.
This leads to electoral campaigns of variable duration for each of the candidacies, as even though the final date is officially set for all of them, their initiation will vary depending on the date they manage to meet the legal requisites.
This situation creates an extraordinary inequality among the candidates, above all in favour of those who already hold the position for which the election is being held. This is so, not only because they are probably in a position to fulfil the legal requirements to be named sooner and will constantly have the benefit of a longer campaign, but also inevitably because of the latter, they will be considered news by the media and the very collecting of signatures, will be dealt with as such.
Electoral laws should therefore avoid this type of campaign of variable duration for each candidate; they should establish exactly how long the electoral campaign should be and this, usually coinciding with the periods during which the different candidates enjoy particular public advantages, must be identical for all contenders.
