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Chechens vote for president replacing slain leader
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-29 14:20

Amid high concern over rebel attacks, voters in Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya began on Sunday to elect a successor to their former slain president.

The vote, the second of its kind in less than a year in the Northern Caucasus republic, started at 08:00 Moscow time (0400 GMT) and will last till 20:00 (1600GMT) Akhmad Kadyrov was elected Chechen president last October in a vote that Kremlin hoped to bring stability to Chechnya that has been ravaged by violence and instability over the past decade in two wars between Chechen separatists and Russian federal forces.

The pro-Moscow Chechen leader was killed in a bomb blast on May 9 and fighting and violent crime have continued unabated since then.

View of a shell-damaged wall with an election poster reading 'The Power of the law, the defence of people, peace and prosperity of the republic' with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shaking hands with Chechen presidential candidate Alu Alkhanov, in the center of Grozny.   [AFP]

The Sunday vote also came after the crashes of two Russian airliners on Tuesday night, which killed 90 people and Chechen rebels are suspected of playing a role in the tragedies which happened almost simultaneously.

Of the seven candidates vying for the presidency, 47-year-old Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov is widely expected to win the election by garnering some 80 percent of the votes, Russian media have predicted.

A candidate who will win over 50 percent of the votes will become Chechnya's president for the next four years, according to the electoral law.

Alkhanov, a favorite of both Russian President Vladimir Putin's government and the Chechen administration, has vowed to carry on Kadyrov's policies, and to treat security and social stability as top priorities while trying to restore the tattered economy and improve people's life.

Chechnya won de-facto independence in 1996 after the pullout of Russian troops. Federal soldiers returned to the lawless republic in September 1999. Since then, the guerrilla war between Chechen rebels and federal troops has persisted, occasionally spilling into neighboring regions.

Russian media considers the situation in Chechnya is even more complicated and tense than that before last October's vote. Some Chechens worry about the possibility of armed rebels to sabotage the voting on Sunday.

Tensions were further heightened by the latest twin air crashes.

Some 14,000 servicemen and federal servicemen are being mobilized to ensure security and public order for the election.

Dozens of police patrol groups are on round-the-clock duty in the capital of Grozny and armored vehicles have also been deployed at main intersections in the city. Cars and trucks entering the city are carefully searched.

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