Turnout Passes 81% in Chechnya

<http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/10/06/003.html>

GROZNY -- Chechens cast ballots Sunday in a virtually uncontested presidential election staged by the Kremlin and expected to endorse the rule of its favored candidate, the head of Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, Akhmad Kadyrov.

Campaign advertising was represented by omnipresent Kadyrov posters, hanging on nearly every house in Grozny. Posters of other candidates were few and far between.

By 1 p.m. Sunday, voter turnout reached the 30 percent required to make the election valid, said Chechen election committee head Abul-Kerim Arsakhanov. By 7 p.m., an hour before polling stations closed, turnout passed 81 percent.


Figured all of you might want some international news, not just the Middle East and America.

It should be here!

I read that in the election for the dictator* in Pakistan a polling place leader was afraid. His quota of 500 votes was way behind.



* like Bush I can't remember his name either. Musarak?

n/t

Kadyrov wins Chechen poll landslide
Monday 06 October 2003

Kremlin-backed candidate Akhmad Kadyrov is heading for an emphatic victory in an election that has been widely discredited.

Pro-Russian administrator Kadyrov had secured over 83% of the popular vote with 25% of the ballots counted, the electoral commission announced early on Monday following Sunday's vote.

This makes it "impossible for the other candidates to overtake or even approach" Kadyrov, the commission's chief Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Kadyrov took an early lead with as much as 80% of the vote in the most populated areas such as Grozny and Gudermes, the region’s second-largest city.

Despite widespread reports of nigh-on empty polling stations, election officials said turnout was over 80%. Kadyrov faced no serious rivals after many other candidates were either disqualified from running or otherwise removed.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CAA6559A-DDB0-48E8-A33E-7B476EFA6A32.htm

The Media is escorted to selected polling stations and not allowed to venture away from their military escorts. Election watchers call the election a farce, and an interview with a local Chechan woman that a reporter somehow got seemed to confirm that viewpoint.

There was also an LBN item earlier today concerning the farce election.