Activist Khalitov demands direct election of leader in Dagestan

Today, Salim Khalitov has held a picket with the demand to return to the national election for the leader of Dagestan. The picketer questioned the legitimacy of the election of the regional leader by the current composition of the People’s Assembly.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on September 30, during the first session of the People’s Assembly of Dagestan, activist Salim Khalitov held a picket in Makhachkala with a claim about the illegitimacy of the republican parliament of the new convocation. On the same day, MPs elected Zaur Askenderov, the leader of the “Edinaya Rossiya” (United Russia) Party faction and a former State Duma member, as the new chair of the parliament.

“Members of the republican parliament were elected through fraud, and their meeting to elect the leader of Dagestan means the same as calling 90 people from the street and telling them: ‘Raise your hands for Melikov!’,” Salim Khalitov has stated at the picket in Makhachkala today. “And then Melikov will sit in the chair of the leader of Dagestan, as if he was elected by the MPs who were elected by the people,” the weekly newspaper “Chernovik” (Rough Draft) quotes the activist as claiming.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 13, 2021 at 02:30 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.