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Kremlin's
Man 'Elected' President In Chechnya
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Russian
police officers stand guard near a polling station as the poster
shows Putin shaking hands with Kadyrov
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GROZNY,
October 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Amid cries of foul
playing and rigging, the top pro-Russian administrator in Chechnya,
Ahmad Kadyrov, has been "elected" Monday, October 6,
president of the troubled southern republic, turnouts seen by his
countrymen and rights groups as a farce and resembled to Soviet-era
elections "with their turnouts of 99.998 percent."
Kadyrov
won 81.1 percent of the vote casts in Sunday's poll, the head of the
republic's electoral commission Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov told a press
conference in the Chechen capital Grozny.
He
said the figures were based on a count of 77 percent of the votes
cast, "but no other candidate can overtake Kadyrov's score,"
reported Agence France-Presse.
Kadyrov's
nearest rival among six other candidates, Abdul Bugayev, won 6.2
percent of the vote.
The
52-year-old Kadyrov unabashedly used his position as the republic's
chief administrator for electoral advantage, and his campaign posters
dominated markets and walls in Chechnya, with his supporters
controlling local newspapers, radio and television.
Media
reports said last month that the Kremlin had rigged the race for the sake of
Kadyrov after four front-runners had mysteriously withdrawn or been
ejected from Chechnya's troubled election, leaving Kadyrov as the
almost certain winner.
Moscow's
key objective was to sideline Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was
elected in Chechnya's only free presidential polls, in 1997.
Maskhadov
was elected to a five-year term in 1997 after the republic won de
facto independence from Russia following a brutal 1994-96 war.
During
the first war between Russian troops and Chechen fighters in the
1990s, Kadyrov fought with the fighters. Appointed a mufti in 1995, he
once called for a jihad against Russia.
But
when Russia launched the second war against Chechen fighters in
October 1999, Kadyrov threw his lot in with Moscow.
And
Moscow threw its lot in with him. Instead of convincing the fighters
to lay down their arms, Kadyrov found himself branded a traitor and
has been ducking assassination attempts ever since.
Public
Enemy No. One
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Kadyrov
is disliked by many locals and remains Chechen fighters' public
enemy number one
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Kadyrov
is, in effect, disliked by many locals and remains Chechen fighters'
public enemy number one.
Residents
of Grozny went back Monday to the daily grind in the war-ravaged
Chechen capital, most dismissive of their newly
"Moscow-appointed" president.
"Of
course there are a lot of bad things you can say about him. Of course
he contributed to our misery," Tamara, a woman in her 40s, told
AFP.
Grozny
resident Badrudim said he had cast his ballot for Kadyrov's nearest
opponent Abdul Bugayev -- who got 6.2 percent of the vote -- "to
show I can vote as I like although I don't think these elections will
change anything."
"Kadyrov
is a shepherd who came down from the mountains," the man said
derisively.
"He'll
only do things for his own kind, and maybe we'll get some crumbs, but
I'm not counting on it."
Some
were shocked to see Kadyrov on television as part of President
Vladimir Putin's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly
meeting in New York last month.
Russian
opposition politicians and rights groups have also dismissed the
election as a farce, denouncing the strong institutional bias in
Kadyrov's favor and the withdrawal or disqualification of his main
rivals.
A
leading Russian opposition politician Wednesday, October 1, denounced
as "a farce" the Moscow-sponsored presidential election,
saying electors had been given no choice.
"What
is the point of this election, seeing that Kadyrov, hated by 70
percent of Chechens, is incapable of restoring peace in the
republic?" Boris Nemtsov said.
Nezavisimaya
Gazeta and the business daily Kommersant
both stressed the lack of genuine opposition to Kadyrov, while the
liberal Gazeta pointed to the resemblance to Soviet-era
elections "with their turnouts of 99.998 percent."
Moscow-based
independent analyst Vladimir Primylovsky believed hopes to end war in
Chechnya were certain to be dashed.
"This
was a dishonest election that gives Kadyrov almost no legitimacy. At
best it will allow the situation to stagnate, but there's every chance
it will make things worse," he said.
"Not
A Real Election"
The
pan-European rights body OSCE refused to send observers to the poll,
and the rapporteur for Chechnya of the Council of Europe's
Parliamentary Assembly, Andreas Gross, said he could not send
observers to what was "not a real election."
The
election, which took place amid a high security presence, came almost
exactly four years after 80,000 Russian troops poured into the
Caucasus republic in what Moscow called a lightning-strike
"anti-terror operation" but which has since degenerated into
a grinding guerrilla war.
The
current conflict, the second war between Russia and Chechen fighters
in a decade, has left 5,000 Russian soldiers dead -- 12,000 according
to rights groups -- and thousands of civilians killed.
It
has also driven tens of thousands of Chechens into exile within Russia
and abroad. Grozny now is filled with pockmarked buildings where
people survive with no water, phone and little electricity
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