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MOSCOW (Islam Online & AFP) -The breakaway Islamic republic of Chechnya is "all ready" for a legislative by-election due on Sunday, where a single deputy would represent their republic in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
"Everything is ready. The republic is prepared for the election and security forces are ready to maintain order," said Sergei Danilenko, Central Election Commission official, on Monday. Danilenko added that all security measures had been taken by the army and police to supervise the vote. Chechens were previously prevented from voting in the December 19th legislative elections because of heavy fighting in the Islamic republic. The election commission says there are 495,000 registered voters in Chechnya, 5% of them Russian soldiers. The Chechen election commission, for its part, said that 385 polling stations had been opened in the republic, eight of them for Russian troops serving there. Its president, Abdul Kerim Arsakhnov, said there was "no doubt that turnout will be high," adding that the vote would be "regular." Chechen refugees will also be allowed to vote, but their numbers would be "insignificant," said Aleksandr Veshnyakov, president of the central election commission, commenting that only 10,000 refugees voted in the presidential election last March 26. Also, Russian checkpoints and encampments came under fire at the start of the week and the mayor of the Chechen capital Grozny, Supian Makhchayev, said he survived a fourth assassination attempt. In other developments, a 20-year-old son of a pro-Moscow Chechen administrator was murdered overnight, military sources quoted by Interfax said Wednesday. The presumed attackers knocked at his door in Urus-Martan, southwest of Grozny, and handed him a package, pretending that it came from Moscow, a Russian military spokesperson stated. The package exploded after the victim opened it. Several pro-Moscow Chechens have been killed in recent weeks. |
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