The Kremlin's favoured candidate for president of war-battered Chechnya overwhelmingly won an election that opponents claimed was riddled with fraud, Russian news agencies reported today. With 84% of the vote counted, Maj Gen Alu Alkhanov, Chechnya's top policeman, had received nearly 75% of the votes. Although the Kremlin portrayed the voting as a step towards stability, violence shadowed yesterday's balloting. A man blew himself up near a polling station after trying to enter it carrying a suspicious package, officials said. Fears of terrorism were also stoked by the crashes of two Russian passenger jets five days before the election. Officials said traces of explosives were found in the wreckage.
Seven candidates battled to replace the previous Kremlin-backed Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in May. But Alkhanov was seen as the Kremlin's clear choice and opponents claimed the voting was rigged. Candidate Abdullah Bugayev said he had formally complained to election officials after seeing several breaches, including an Alkhanov campaign worker who ordered people to vote for him at a polling station. A representative of Movsur Khamidov, another candidate, said he found ballot boxes at a polling station stuffed shortly after the station opened.
| These jokers need to do an internship in Chicago. |
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