Special Edition of Newspaper with Text of Chechnya's Constitution Undergoes Technical Examination - 2 April, 2003

A special edition of the Vesti Respubliki newspaper with the text of the Chechen Republic's Constitution is undergoing technical examination.

The official spokesman for the head of Chechnya's administration said Wednesday that "ten signal issues of the newspaper with the text of the Constitution were sent to Chechnya's Election Committee for examination. This procedure is called to "exclude possible technical mistakes in the process of printing," RIA Novosti's source said.

According to him, usually the circulation of Vesti Respubliki amounts to 20,000 copies. The special edition will be nearly doubled.

Head of the Russian Election Committee Alexander Veshnyakov previously told RIA Novosti that "the Fundamental Law will come into force after the Election Committee of Chechnya announces the official results and the texts of the Constitution and the election laws are printed.

According to official data, over 88 per cent of the electorate took part in the referendum on Chechnya's Constitution, and 96 per cent of them spoke in favour of the republic's Fundamental Law.

Groups of observers from leading international organisations, including the OSCE, monitored the referendum, together with representatives of the CIS, the League of Arab States, and Embassies of Japan, Egypt, Yemen, Indonesia, and Malaysia to Russia.