Russia’s elections commission has said it found “dead souls” among the more than 100,000 signatures of support submitted by Boris Nadezhdin, the sole anti-war candidate in next month’s presidential election, in a sign that he could be disqualified from a carefully managed ballot meant to deliver victory for Vladimir Putin. Nadezhdin, a veteran politician who has associated with Kremlin insiders and the opposition to Putin, has been waging a last-minute campaign to get on the ballot for the election, with thousands of Russians standing for hours in the freezing cold to add their signature in his support. While Nadezhdin has not yet been disqualified, Friday’s briefing at the central elections commission indicated that he could be removed in the run-up to the vote. He has been summoned to the commission on Monday for a review of the “errors” among his signatures. In comments reported by the state-run news agency Tass, Nikolai Bulayev, the deputy head of the government agency, said: “There are errors [in Nadezhdin’s signatures] that elicit surprise. When we see dozens and dozens of people who are no longer alive leaving signatures, the question arises about the purity of ethical norms, including by signature collectors.” He added: “To some extent, the candidate is directly involved.” Nadezhdin previously served as an aide to Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s domestic politics chief, and his deep contacts in government are controversial. Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik, said Nadezhdin had probably been permitted to try – and fail – to collect signatures for the elections to “show the hopelessness of the anti-war agenda”. But since then, she said, Nadezhdin’s support from the camp of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his meeting with angry wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine and his attempts at outreach to anti-war Russians who have fled abroad had made his candidacy politically embarrassing for the Kremlin. The independent Levada Centre said this week that Nadezhdin was polling in the single digits and at best could expect to win 4% of the general election vote, and more likely 2%. Putin is likely to expect an overwhelming victory to give him a fifth term in office and a mandate to continue with the war. Nadezhdin said in his elections manifesto that Putin had made a “fatal mistake by starting the special military operation”, the Kremlin’s preferred term for its invasion. “Putin sees the world from the past and is dragging Russia into the past,” he said. Another openly anti-war candidate, Yekaterina Duntsova, has already been disqualified by the elections commission, which refused to accept her nomination because of alleged errors in her paperwork, including spelling mistakes. She and others have shifted their grassroots organising effort to support Nadezhdin, who saw a surge in popularity last month as he collected signatures across the country. Many supporters recognised that although he has past ties to the government, they had no other candidate to voice their dissatisfaction with the war. He also received support from allies of Navalny, who have mostly been jailed or driven from Russia. “Standing in line and supporting Nadezhdin is a safe way to protest and we support that,” said Ruslan Shaveddinov, a close ally of Navalny’s.