Presidential elections in the republic of Yakutia can be delayed

The matter pertaining to the elections of the president of the republic of Yakutia is taking the new turn. The struggle that is currently taking place there does not look like the democratic elections, it is getting more and more trivial. The stakes in this struggle are set too high and the prize - “the diamond stock” (the republic is the centre of the diamonds extraction in the country) is extremely valuable in every sense.

The Russian Federation Constitution Court can address to the legislative assembly of Yakutia with a request to delay the presidential elections until the Constitution Court makes the resolution on the inquiry from Yakutia’s Supreme Court.

This was said by Tamara Morshakova - the deputy chairwoman of the Constitution Court today. At the same time Morshakova stressed that such an address could be possible, only if the inquiry from the Supreme Court of Yakutia pertaining to the opportunity for incumbent President Mikhail Nikolayev to participate in the elections for the third time running would be considered by the Constitution Court.

As it is known, deputy prosecutor general Vasily Kolmogorov used to be considered as the single Kremlin candidacy; Vladimir Putin’s “Leningrad team” stakes on him. Later on, the competitors of the “Leningrad team” decided that incumbent President of the republic of Yakutia, Mikhail Nikolayev, was ok too. That is why even Gleb Pavlovsky - the person, who “created” Putin, was left alone for that very reason. The Kremlin probably became disillusioned in Kolmogorov – deputy Prosecutor General, or maybe Vyacheslav Shtyrov’s withdrawal from the race played its role – the general director of the Russian diamond company ALROSA. Maybe the administration believed that Kolmogorov was not likely to substitute Shtyrov, who became the major person in the presidential race without Mikhail Nikolayev.

In order to re-group the forces and nominate a worthy candidacy the decision to delay the date of the presidential elections is likely to be made. The media passion on the matter will chill out by that time, lawyers and PR-people will then come along and we will get the “honest” democratic elections, and all legislative norms will be “observed.”

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

On the photo: Mikhail Nikolayev - the incumbent President of Yakutia republic

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/23/34163.html