Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s political party has been withdrawn from elections in Yaroslavl, after the Russian city’s mayor, who backed the party, was arrested on corruption charges.

      A local court on Monday approved recent decision by the Yaroslavl Region’s election committee to remove the Civic Platform party from the elections for the city legislature set for September 8.

      Election authorities banned the party from the vote, because the party had failed to open a bank account for its campaign before the deadline. In their turn, Civic Platform representatives said the party could not open the account because police had detained the party member tasked with doing so and released her after the deadline had passed. However, local officials denied that accusation.

      Last year, the Yaroslavl region first came into the limelight when its voters picked the independent Yevgeny Urlashov for Yaroslavl mayor, making him the only head of a regional capital in Russia not affiliated with the ruling United Russia party. However, last month, Urlashov was arrested on bribery charges, soon after he backed Prokhorov’s party for the September vote. The mayor says that police fabricated the case in retribution for his taking on the ruling party.