Boris Nadezhdin, the anti-war Russian presidential hopeful, could be barred from challenging Vladimir Putin in elections next month after officials found “errors” in his entry form.

Mr Nadezhdin has spent weeks criticising Putin and the Kremlin’s military offensive in Ukraine, which is in its third year.

Russians queued up last month to submit signatures in support of the 60-year-old so he could be registered as an official candidate in the presidential election.

On Wednesday, he handed in more than the 100,000 required signatures to the Central Election Commission, which is expected to rule next week whether he will be allowed to stand.

“When we see dozens of people who are no longer on this Earth and they add a signature, that poses questions about the ethical standards being used... including by the person collecting them,” Nikolay Bulayev, the commission’s deputy chairman, said, in reference to Mr Nadezhdin.

He summoned Mr Nadezhdin and another candidate – Communist Sergei Malinkovich – to appear before the commission on Monday, where officials would show them the “results of the checking procedure”.

Mr Nadezhdin dismissed the commission’s accusations.

“We are all more alive than the living,” he said, posting photographs on Telegram of people queuing to submit signatures.

He alluded to the classic Russian novel Dead Souls to mock election officials.

“If someone sees dead souls in my signature lists, well, friends, these questions should not be addressed to me. It’s more for the church or exorcists,” he said.

In a post earlier on Friday, Mr Nadezhdin repeated that he would take the election commission to court if it barred him from running.

In an interview last month, he said Putin’s decision to launch the Ukraine offensive in 2022 had been “catastrophic”.

Many have been surprised that he has been allowed to progress this far in the voting process.

Tatiana Stanovay, a political analyst, said the election commission’s comments were a sign Mr Nadezhdin would not be allowed to stand.

“The Kremlin has started to prepare the public for the decision of barring Nadezhdin,” she said on Telegram.