Registration of Chechen would-be leader cancelled

Russia's Supreme Court has confirmed the legitimacy of cancelling the registration of Malik Saidullayev as a candidate for the Chechen president. Saidullayev is a famous Chechen businessman living in Moscow.

At its Thursday session, the Supreme Court decided the candidate had been registered with the Chechen election commission unlawfully.

He was registered as a presidential candidate in late August on the basis of a subscription list of his electors. On September 11, Chechnya's Supreme Court annulled his registration on grounds of incorrect formulation of the subscription lists.

Presidential elections in the Chechen Republic are slated for October 5th, 2003.

According to the case files, 3,580 signatures were collected in support of Saidullayev. Chechnya's election commission checked 2,179 signatures and identified 2.2% of them as illegal. However, another presidential candidate, Chechen poet Nikolai Paizullayev, has appealed to the Chechen Supreme Court against violations in the subscription lists. 2,179 lists were again checked during the court's session, and 89.9% of them were found inappropriately formulated. In particular, patronymics of some voters were written in a short form, the age of some voters was not mentioned in some lists and the addresses of voters were incomplete. 1,960 lists were recognised as invalid, and the Supreme Court of Chechnya annulled Saidullayev's registration.

Seven people are running for president in the Chechen Republic.