Independent observers: elections in Chechnya were predictable

In Chechnya, early elections of deputies of national parliament of the second convocation are over. In the opinion of independent observers, the results of the "nation's will show" are no surprise.

As many of them had predicted, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has again marked "high activeness" of citizens (according to official data, the voter turnout was above 94 percent, despite a powerful earthquake causing human victims and destructions on the eve of the voting day. The overwhelming majority in the new parliament is taken by representatives of the party in power.

"According to preliminary data, about 88 percent of the voters cast their ballots for candidates from 'Edinaya Rossiya' (United Russia), while about 9.5 percent - for 'Spravedlivaya Rossiya' (Fair Russia). Other parties won absolutely insignificant votes will not be presented in the new parliament," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Republic's CEC.

The outcomes of the new parliamentary elections could long be predicted and are as expected, local observers believe.

"In my opinion, today in Chechnya the Kremlin is running a sort of a trial of variants how to centralize power in the federal scale. Moscow has long been saying that it's enough for the country to have two big parties, like in a number of western countries. Now, it's clear that neither CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) nor LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia), nor anybody else have any political future. Russia will have only two parties - 'Edinaya' and 'Spravedlivaya', and all the others will either get dissolved in them or just cease to exist," a local human rights activist believes.

"Imagine a situation: an earthquake happened, there are casualties and numerous destructions. What should people do first of all? Naturally, bury the victims and restore houses, it's autumn now, and every day counts!" one of Chechen human rights activists, who wished to remain anonymous told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "It's nonsense - to assure everybody that voter turnout was the highest in the Kurchaloy District, most damaged by the earthquake."