Chechnya election to boost pro-Moscow leader

A pro-Kremlin party led in Chechnya's Moscow-sponsored parliament elections today, election officials said, signalling an outcome…

A pro-Kremlin party led in Chechnya's Moscow-sponsored parliament elections today, election officials said, signalling an outcome that will entrench a pro-Russia strongman in power in the rebel region.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin, who has pursued a harsh campaign to stamp out Chechen separatism, hailed Sunday's poll as a milestone in rebuilding the constitutional order in the war-shattered Muslim region.

There is no doubt that the election to the first parliament of our republic was legitimate
Chechen election chief Ismail Baikhanov

"There is no doubt that the election to the first parliament of our republic was legitimate," Chechen election chief Ismail Baikhanov told journalists. "The clear leader is the (pro-Kremlin) United Russia ... with 61.9 percent of vote."

He did not say how many votes had been counted. Separatist rebels took no part in the vote and called it a charade, as they have past Moscow-sponsored elections.

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Chechnya has not had a parliament since its last legislature - which functioned during the short-lived independence won in the first war with Russia in 1994-96 - fell apart after Mr Putin sent troops to retake the region in 1999.

United Russia's victory will pack the new parliament with loyalists of regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov - the son of an assassinated pro-Moscow president and de facto ruler of the region despite his official title of deputy prime minister.

Mr Kadyrov, a bearded, burly figure, has thousands of armed men at his command - many of them former rebels like him and many of whom are accused by rights groups of brutality against local people.

Baikhanov said that the Communist Party, which came second, had nearly 12 percent and liberal Union of the Right Wing Forces was third with around 11 percent. The official turnout was nearly 60 per cent, but some Russian newspapers and rights activists suggested that the figure could have been exaggerated.

Rights group Memorial, which had a network of supporters observing the vote, said electoral activity, at least in Grozny, was lower than suggested by official turnout figures.

"Moreover, Memorial workers identified obvious discrepancies in turnout figures between those provided by chairmen of electoral commissions and those witnessed by observers from political parties," it said in a statement.

"The elections finalise the legal process for restoring constitutional order in this republic," Mr Putin said in televised remarks to his government in Moscow.

In 2003 Chechnya elected former separatist Muslim leader Akhmad Kadyrov - Ramzan's father - as president. He was killed by a rebel bomb in 2004.