Chechen presidential elections in Kurchaloy distric

Elections in the village of Kurchaloy on October 5, 2003 were held with a very low voters' attendance rate. There are three electoral districts in the village: 147, 148, and 149.

105 people - and that was a record attendance number for the whole day - came to election center 147 during an hour, from 10:45 till 11:45. That time concurred with a visit of Grozny television journalists. One third of those 105 people was made up by family members and relatives of district administration deputy head Shuaipov, including Mr. Shuaipov himself. As an example, 33 people came to the same election center from 14:15 till 15:15. Later the voters' activity was still lower.

Ruslan, a local villager, told after voting that his father, who had died 5 years ago, was on the voter lists. One man was allowed to vote for all relatives as well. Observers of the presidential contender Shamil Burayev and a member of the human rights organization "Consolidation" were at the center. They sat silently and did not interfere in anything.

28 people came to electoral center 148 from 12:05 till 13:05. Even fewer voters came to the center later. A picture at electoral center 149 was the same as at the two other ones. Almost no people came to all three electoral centers after 17:00.

Here are official data on the number of people who voted in the Kurchaloy district:

Kurchaloy: center 147: 1300 people voted (62% of all the district voters); center 148: 2170 people voted (75%); center 149: 1880 people voted (60%).

The average voters' attendance rate in Kurchaloy is 66%. Geldagana: voters' attendance is 93%, the number of voters is 5200 people; Tsotsin-Yurt: attendance - 85%, number of voters - 4080; Tsentoroy: attendance - 100%, number of voters - 2735; Bachi-Yurt: the attendance rate is 100% at one electoral center and 98% at the two other ones, the number of voters in the village is 5800; Alleroy: attendance - 98%, number of voters - 4400; mountain villages: the average attendance rate is 90%.

Village administration heads received new VAZ-2106 cars in two or three days before the elections. A September pension was given out in the Kurchaloy district on October 3-5. There have been no such cases in Chechnya for the last ten years and will not probable be in future either.