Residents of Chechnya claim lack of interest in elections

In Chechnya, local residents interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" treat as "uninteresting" the pre-election campaign carried out by candidates for the position of the leader of the republic. A lot of the Chechen residents believe that the candidacy of the future leader of the republic has already been determined in advance.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 18, on the single day of voting, Chechnya will hold the election of the leader of the republic and the elections of deputies of the State Duma and of the Parliament of the republic. Ramzan Kadyrov, who is treated in the republic as the leading candidate for the position of the leader of Chechnya, has refused in advance to conduct active campaign in his support and to participate in TV debates.

"The whole election campaign is of no interest to the vast majority of the population. We can say that the results of the forthcoming elections have already been evident," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by a leader of a local NGO, who preferred to remain anonymous.

"I watched the TV debates, but only partially. For me, the fact that one of the candidates, namely, the acting leader of the republic, has not taken part in them is an indicator of how seriously the power treats the whole campaign," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Adlan, a former staff member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

According to the resident of Grozny, the candidates who took part in the TV debate spoke mostly of general terms. "They carefully avoided the urgent problems, such as mass unemployment, lack of real prospects for the majority of our young people, incompetence of local officials, corruption, and arbitrariness of law enforcers," said the resident of the Chechen capital.

"We have the election without any choice. The election will be won by the candidate, put forward by the Kremlin, and the man is well known to all of us," said Wakha, a resident of Grozny.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.