It’s easy to get confused: namesakes are waiting for voters in the elections

An interesting situation has occurred in the Voronezh region, and in some other regions of Russia, the UtroNews correspondent reports.

The fact that 8 (!) Candidates by the name of Vakhtin (these are Alexander, Alexei, Anatoly, Anton, Viktor, Vladimir, Evgeny, Yuri) immediately nominated for the elections to the Semiluksky District Council of the Voronezh Region in constituency No. 11 became known to Kommersant . At the same time, all (except one) are self-nominated.

According to Kommersant, Vladimir Vakhtin is allegedly close to the ex-mayor of Semiluk, Sergei Shevelyukhin, who was previously at the center of a scandal due to the loss of his post. It is noteworthy that the former mayor is also running for the district council from Rodina, and in his constituency No. 5 there is a namesake – self-nominated Sergey Shevelyukhin.

This is also an important point: the local election commission says that they cannot refuse registration to candidates with the same last name.

The coincidence of surnames does not contradict the law.

However, according to the results of the check, six Vakhtins will take part in the elections, the publication adds.

It is worth recalling here that the situation with namesakes in 2021 resulted in a loud scandal.

In those elections, two candidates ran against the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Boris Vishnevsky, who had the same first and last name (well, at least the patronymics were different). Previously, they changed their names, surnames and even their appearance, says Kommersant. And in the end, after the scandal, the State Duma adopted amendments, according to which the old full names should be entered in the ballot if the applicant changed them in the last year before the vote.

However, there are also natural coincidences (that is, when people actually, without a change, have the same names and surnames).

There are similarities in other regions too. For example, in the Lipetsk region, there is Sergei Tokarev in the by-elections to the State Duma, and there is also candidate Oleg Tokarev.

When people change their last names on purpose, it is most likely done to confuse voters. Therefore, we advise you to carefully read the names, surnames and patronymics in the ballots, so as not to make a mistake and vote for the one you have chosen.