Cherkessk Leadership Poll Controversy

The second round of the Karachaevo-Cherkessia presidential election has been allowed to stand, despite were serious reservations about the conduct of the poll.

The August 31 ballot saw Mustafa Batdyev, chairman of the republic's National Bank, gain 48 per cent of the votes, narrowly beating the incumbent president, retired Army General Vladimir Semyonov.

The first round of voting on August 17 had sparked rallies across the republic, with protesters alleging that voters had been bribed by the two main contenders - Batdyev and Semyonov.

All the candidates have accused Batdyev of bribing voters, alleging the support of entire Cherkes villages was bought wholesale.

Representatives of the International Human Rights Assembly who oversaw the election have documented several instances of ballot fraud, and one international observer claimed that he was beaten up by unidentified assailants.

However, government officials - including the prosecutor general, interior minister and the electoral board - have denied the charges electoral irregularities.

Associates of Semyonov and Burlakov nonetheless filed a lawsuit with the Karachaevo-Cherkes Supreme Court on August 20, demanding that the first round be declared void.

But on August 30, just one day before round two, the legal action was unexpectedly withdrawn.

Round two, though, did not go off without a hitch. The electoral board chairman received a complaint from Semyonov, claiming his observers had not been admitted to polling stations in the Khabez district.

"The voter turnout in the Khabez district was 94 per cent, the highest in the republic," Andrei Alexanov of the electoral board told IWPR. "This would not have mattered, but certain facts presented the station in a different light.

"First of all, more voters voted for Batdyev there than in any other district. Each of the losing candidates had received at least 2,500 votes at each polling station, but not in Khabez, where Semyonov ended up with only 341. We thought this was suspicious."

The elections have, nevertheless, been recognised as valid.

Some observers attribute this year's relatively tranquil presidential ballot to the fact that the three main candidates belonged to the republic's largest ethnic group, Karachaev.

Karachaevo-Cherkessia is considered one of the most ethnically diverse and turbulent regions in Russia. According to the unofficial results of a census there last autumn, around 42 per cent of the population are Karachaev, with only 10 per cent Cherkes.

The arrival of Batdyev heralds major changes in the economic and ethnic policy of the Karachaevo-Cherkes government. A graduate of the School of Economics at Moscow State University, Batdyev supervised privatisation in Karachaevo-Cherkessia in the early Nineties as senior vice-premier and chairman of the government property committee.

Batdyev was openly backed by the Cherkes association Adyge-Khase - remembered for its anti-Karachaev rallies in 1999. He also received the backing of the influential Cherkes community leaders Stanislav Derev and Nazir Khapsirokov.

This could not help but alienate Karachaev voters, despite the fact that Batdyev belongs to an influential local clan.

Compared to Batdyev, Semyonov - who is half Karachaev and half Russian and grew up outside the republic - might have been a better compromise solution as he does not favour any particular ethnicity.

"If Semyonov had been elected, there would be no major changes in the economic and ethnic policies or staff line-up," political analyst Ginaz Otarov told IWPR. "If he had won, we could say the people had voted for stability. But in political circles, Semyonov's term has been long compared to Brezhnev's 'stagnation' era.

"Batdyev, on the other hand, is considered a dynamic politician and progressive economist."

The relatively peaceful change of leadership in Karachaevo-Cherkessia's is in stark contrast to the 1999 presidential poll, when mass unrest continued for months after Semyonov was elected. The result was challenged twice in the Supreme Court of Russia and the republic was officially governed by Moscow until all the lawsuits were resolved.

Ahmat Ebzeev is an independent journalist in Karachaevo-Cherkessia.