High voter turnout in Chechen Republic achieved by added ballotsTimur Aliyev, North Caucasus - The high turnout at the polls in the Chechen Republic, despite near total voter absence, was due to electoral commission employees casting ballots that they had filled in beforehand. This was privately confirmed by workers at the voting sites.
According to the Central Electoral Commission of the Chechen Republic, by 6:00 that evening, almost 83% of the registered voters in the republic took part in the election of the President of the Russian Federation.
In fact, no more than 200-300 people came to the voting sites on average, which translates into 10-15% of all registered voters, stated the employees of the local election commissions.
According to Ziyavdi Chagayev, vice-chairman of the electoral commission at precinct No. 403, located in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, the percentage of voters and votes for candidates had been set beforehand. “Two days prior to the election, each local electoral commission chairman received a notice from the territorial electoral commission about how big the voter turnout should be and how many votes each candidate should receive.”
"We weren’t worried that there would be more ballots in the box than there were actual voters. We’ve gained experience: in previous elections no more than 200 people voted at our polling site. So we had just accepted the difference,” stated Chagayev.
And similar such situations have, indeed, occurred in every voting district of the Republic. “On Saturday, employees of all the local electoral commissions in Chechnya filled in ballots according to instructions; and on Sunday, Election Day, they only had to drop them into the ballot box,” added Chagayev.
Many election observers who are supposed to stop such goings on, were absent at voting sites. Those who did show up declared they witnessed no infringements. “Work at the polling sites has been well organized. People are voting actively,” stated Inal Vedzizhev, an observer from the United Russia political party.
The absence of voters was due to bad weather, explained Vedzizhev. "Now it’s raining so people don’t want to go out. In the morning, when the sun came out, there were many voting."
However, when Chechens were asked on Election Day whether they voted, they said no, and explained that in a situation where the future President is already known, their participation makes no difference. "Why should we go? Everything has already been decided for us,” was the standard reply.
"It doesn’t matter whether or not I went to vote, my ballot will appear in the ballot box anyway. The outcome of this election was obvious beforehand,” said Tamara Yunusova, editor of the "Molodyozhnaya smena" newspaper.
(S/E,T) |
