Russia's Chechnya votes 99.4 pct for Putin party
By Anton Doroshev
MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russia's Chechnya region, once the Kremlin's biggest headache, has turned into President Vladimir Putin's most enthusiastic supporter giving his party 99.4 percent in Sunday's election, according to official results.
An official with the Central Election Commission in Moscow, where the result was announced, said it was a record.
Chechnya recorded the highest vote for Putin's United Russia party of any region in a parliamentary election officials said was broadly fair but which opponents said was marred by voters being pressured into turning out to vote for the party. Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel, headed United Russia's party list in the region and revels in showing his support for Putin.
Nikolai Konkin, Secretary of Russia's Central Election Commission, told Reuters the vote in Chechnya "does not give me cause for suspicion."
"You have to know the peculiarities of the republic ... this is the (result of the) authority of the leader of the republic and the authority of the Russian president who headed the United Russia list."
But he said the Chechen result was a first. "I think there have been no precedents like this, at least in the history of Russian parliamentary elections."
Putin, as prime minister in 1999, sent troops back into Chechnya after a brief respite in fighting, sparking Moscow's second Chechen war and destroying much of the regional capital Grozny, which is now being rebuilt by Kadyrov.
The Kremlin says the conflict in Chechnya is all but over and that pro-Russian forces are mopping up a couple of hundred of rebels who remain holed up in the mountains.
Rebels, many of whom want to impose Islamist rule, say they are fighting Russian occupation and can still inflict casualties on pro-Russian forces. (Reporting by Anton Doroshev; writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Sami Aboudi)
MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russia's Chechnya region, once the Kremlin's biggest headache, has turned into President Vladimir Putin's most enthusiastic supporter giving his party 99.4 percent in Sunday's election, according to official results.
An official with the Central Election Commission in Moscow, where the result was announced, said it was a record.
Chechnya recorded the highest vote for Putin's United Russia party of any region in a parliamentary election officials said was broadly fair but which opponents said was marred by voters being pressured into turning out to vote for the party. Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel, headed United Russia's party list in the region and revels in showing his support for Putin.
Nikolai Konkin, Secretary of Russia's Central Election Commission, told Reuters the vote in Chechnya "does not give me cause for suspicion."
"You have to know the peculiarities of the republic ... this is the (result of the) authority of the leader of the republic and the authority of the Russian president who headed the United Russia list."
But he said the Chechen result was a first. "I think there have been no precedents like this, at least in the history of Russian parliamentary elections."
Putin, as prime minister in 1999, sent troops back into Chechnya after a brief respite in fighting, sparking Moscow's second Chechen war and destroying much of the regional capital Grozny, which is now being rebuilt by Kadyrov.
The Kremlin says the conflict in Chechnya is all but over and that pro-Russian forces are mopping up a couple of hundred of rebels who remain holed up in the mountains.
Rebels, many of whom want to impose Islamist rule, say they are fighting Russian occupation and can still inflict casualties on pro-Russian forces. (Reporting by Anton Doroshev; writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Sami Aboudi)
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