Rights defenders: Actual voter turnout was lowTimur Aliyev, North Caucasus – According to human rights activists and independent observers who monitored the Kremlin-staged presidential election in Chechnya, the actual voter turnout was quite low.
According to Tatyana Lokshina, executive director of the Moscow Helsinki Group, “the city of Grozny was absolutely empty. In all the polling stations that we monitored for a quarter of an hour or so, usually only two or three people showed up to vote. There were more security forces around than inhabitants.“
Antuan Araklyan, an independent observer from the Saint Petersburg-based “Strategia” centre, told our correspondent that he had been a monitor in the villages of Vedeno, Tsa-Vedeno, Shali, and Germenchuk, and that he also saw only about two or three people simultaneously at each polling station.
Grigory Shvedov, a Memorial representative, is also convinced that the turnout was very low, and added that there were other voting peculiarities as well.
“The numbers of voters counted by a local election commission at all polling stations did not coincide with those of the observers. The commission’s numbers were at least 4-5 times higher. The other oddity was the strong military presence – more soldiers were at the polling stations than voters. In many places representatives of the election commission were not present at all.“
Shvedov is convinced that the low turnout is a result of the August 21 rebel attacks on Grozny, in which nearly 50 civilians were either wounded or killed (according to the Emergencies Ministry's figures). (H/E,T)
DISCUSSION FORUM
|
