09 August 2004, 19:31
President of Chechnya to be elected in 20 days
People in Chechnya hold that the present presidential campaign in the republic is too sluggish.
20 days prior to Election Day, only one candidate, Alu Alkhanov, is active in his election campaign. The others are incomparably much less active.
Many residents of the republic believe the reason for such low activity of the candidates for the Chechen presidency can be simply explained: the winner in the forthcoming election is already known. "Alkhanov has been chosen by the Kremlin, and everybody knows he'll be the next "elected" president of Chechnya. The other presidential candidates' mission is only to play the role of the crowd in this performance. There'll be no fair election, and Alu Alkhanov's rivals understand it well. It's a possible reason for their inert behavior," Musa, a 43-year-old teacher of a Chechen institute of higher education living in Grozny, said.
Meanwhile, an official of the Chechen Election Commission asserted: "Agitation materials of other candidates are expected to appear in Grozny and other republican settlements within the next few days. Alkhanov's supporters were really more energetic in this question and left the competitors behind. As for the other things, all the candidates play as equals."
Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent Source: Caucasian Knot
