Russian anti-war presidential candidate Boris Dadyezdin said today that a working group of Russia’s Central Election Commission found that 15 percent of the signatures of supporters he submitted to support his candidacy are invalid.

If this rate is confirmed, it would be three times higher than the margin of error and would be grounds for the committee to deem him unfit to run against the president Vladimir Putin in the March elections.

The committee will issue a final decision on the matter the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, said the spokesman for Dadiezdin.

Dadyezdin himself wrote on Telegram that he will appeal to the Supreme Court if the committee refuses to register him as a candidate.

Last week, Dadyezdin submitted to the election commission signatures from more than 100,000 of his supporters from across Russia as part of his bid to get his name on the ballot.

On Friday, the committee announced that an initial examination of the signatures revealed that some of those listed as supporters of Dadiezdin were dead.

No one expects the 60-year-old Dadyezdin to win the election, even if he is allowed to run, given Putin’s long rule and control of the state.

But his election campaign has sparked interest because of his opposition to the “special military operation,” as the Kremlin calls the war in Ukraine.

Dadiezdin argues that Putin made a “fatal mistake” by starting it and has vowed to end the war through negotiation.