RUSSIA: Election May Not Be a Solution in Chechnya

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Dec 6 2005 (IPS) - Chechnya held its first parliamentary elections over the weekend since Russian troops took control of the province six years back, but the election may fall well short of a solution.

Militant Islamist groups demanding independence for this former Soviet republic have been engaged in continuing conflict with Russian forces.

“The political situation which is characterised by frequent cases of abduction, arbitrary detentions, kidnappings and killing, combined with the Kremlin authorities’ heavy-handed policies, would hardly make elections free and fair,” Human Rights Watch deputy director Alexander Petrov told IPS. “Frankly speaking, for Russia, it’s better to have a non-functional and pro-Kremlin constitutional system of government in place – with a new parliament dominated by loyalists who will continue to take instructions from Moscow. The election has relatively little in common with a real political process,” he said. United Russia, the Kremlin-backed political party that dominates the state Duma (parliament) emerged as the party with the clear majority. The official turnout was 65 percent of about 600,000 registered voters. The new parliament will convene by Dec. 14. “The prevailing atmosphere of fear gave rise to serious concerns that the basic rights to freedom of expression and of association have not fully been realised in Chechnya,” Amnesty International associate researcher for Russia and ex-Soviet republics Victoria Webb told IPS. Chechens are still frightened because “the real power… is not the elected authorities,” said Andreas Gross, head of the Chechnya delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a human rights body. The real authorities, he said, are the law enforcement bodies.

“This creates a situation that makes it hard for people to exercise freely their right to vote,” he said in a statement. “When you’re full of much fear, it’s difficult to be a good citizen and elect a parliament.” Members of the PACE delegation had found that most people were scared of going to the polling booths, he said.

Opposition leaders too have been doubtful about the election. “Nothing is going to change if human rights abuses are allowed to continue and federal forces frequently harass civilians,” spokesman for the Duma committee on federal and regional politics, and Communist Party member Sergey Reshulsky told IPS.

“The new legislative body should build a civil society where human rights are respected, and take into account the emerging demands and traditions of the people,” he said. Despite continuing corruption, squalor, crime and Islamic extremism, and in the face of persistent skirmishes with rebel holdouts, Kremlin officials insist that Chechnya is on the road to recovery and stability. “The elections formally conclude the reconstruction of the republican constitutional system,” President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with government members. “Chechnya has had a major political event – it has elected the legislative power body, the parliament.”

But he acknowledged that “action is needed to effectively implement the Russian government and the Chechen authorities’ plans to bring about social and economic recovery there.”

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov acknowledged at a news conference in Chechen capital Gronzy that the vote was flawed, and that it would be years before the region could hold truly democratic elections. “Tell me that after 12 years of lawlessness and disorder that we would be able hold an ideal democratic election in just a year or two,” he said. “What’s important is that we are moving towards democracy, we are moving towards justice.”