Chechnya: No voting ahead of time

An Electoral committee of Republic of Chechnya has suspended early voting on Saturday morning. The process began in accordance with a specific resolution adopted earlier.

Head of the Electoral committee Abdul-Kerim Arsahanov has stated to “Interfax” that such actions have been taken in regard with the latest request from the Central Electoral Committee [CEC]. The Committee in turn has questioned the information obtained from the armed forces personnel regarding those soldiers who need to vote in advance on November 29-30.

Arsahanov has added that the Chechen Committee has been functioning in accordance with strict guidelines from the CEC, established on Spetamber 3, 2003.

He has also noted that Chechen Republic occupies a special place where armed forces are necessary to accomplish military missions as well as to provide a round-the-clock security.

According to Arsahanov, the overall number of soldiers who need to vote in advance has been officially announced by one of the commanders from the united armed forces.
  
Many of the soldiers within the Republic will vote in accordance with a federal list. Some will vote in the 32 district of the Republic of Chechnya. Those who have to serve on a term basis will be handed out voting bulletins from the federal list.    
 
“Interfax” has been unable to acquire any information from CEC regarding, suspension of the prescheduled election in Chechnya.
 
A decision concerning prescheduled elections has been announced by the Electoral Committee in Chechnya on Friday of last week. This was made especially for soldiers who are unable to attend normal voting procedures due to their service. Many of them will have to provide security on December 7 when the entire population will be voting. According to the Chechen Electoral Committee, about 30,000 soldiers are expected to participate in prescheduled voting procedure,  reports KMnews.
 
In the meantime, it has been said that this prescheduled election to the Chechen government can be recommenced starting today. This information has been provided to “Echo Moskvi” by one of the Committee’s representatives Abdul Kerim Arsahanov.
 
Meanwhile, insurgents attack voting places in Chechnya one by one. A school building in one of the Chechen villages Mesker-Yurt of Shalinsky region equipped with voting booths had been attacked by unidentified individuals. According to ITAR-TASS, the incident took place on Thursday of last week. One of security officers was deadly wounded.  
 
 
Sources: Information Agencies