Bashkortostan Election a One-Horse Race

By Chloe Arnold

UFA, Bashkortostan --- Despite an eleventh-hour attempt by Russia's Supreme Court to force a fair election, it appeared Thursday that only the names of incumbent President Murtaza Rakhimov and one of his cronies will be on the ballot when voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a president.

The Supreme Court has ruled that two of Rakhimov's opponents --- Alexander Arinin and Marat Mirgazyamov --- were struck off the ballot illegally and should be reinstated immediately.

But the Bashkortostan election committee refused Thursday to reinstate Arinin and said it had unearthed new evidence of voting irregularities by Mirgazyamov's camp that may disqualify him from taking part. By late Thursday night, the commission had still not put Mirgazyamov's name back on the ballot.

``By law, I am 100 percent legitimate'', Mirgazyamov said as he waited with a crowd of journalists outside the commission's offices Thursday. ``But Rakhimov has these people under his thumb. They make the rules up as they go along''.

As things stand, Rakhimov's only rival in Sunday's election will be a minister in his own government, Rif Kazakkulov. He is entirely loyal to the president and, aside from being timber minister, has no previous political experience.

Last month, the election committee of this mostly Moslem semi-autonomous republic, 1,200 kilometers east of Moscow, declared that signatures on nomination ballots for State Duma Deputy Arinin, former prime minister of the republic Mirgazyamov and Rafis Kadyrov, a former banker, were invalid.

``The Central Election Commission ruled that signatures had been collected in an underhanded way'', a spokesman from the committee said Thursday. ``In some cases, those collecting signatures gave the impression they were Rakhimov-supporters. In other cases, they forced people to sign under pressure''.

All three have appealed the decision in Moscow.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Mirgazyamov was struck off illegally. However, at a news conference Thursday, the committee said that they had just received a new batch of letters from citizens saying that their signatures had been forged on Mirgazyamov's petitions.

The election committee said it did not have time to check if the letters were authentic before election day because the people who sent them lived in remote villages.

Last week Arinin, a long-time opponent of Rakhimov, ran into the same problem. The Supreme Court ruled that he be re-instated. But three days later, the electoral committee in Ufa, Bashkortostan's capital, announced that Arinin had violated an obscure financial regulation.

``It was discovered that Arinin had been using money from the electoral fund to run his campaign before he was registered'', said the commission's spokesman.

``In Arinin's case, it was less a question of breaking the rules than of politics'', said Sergei Fufayev, Arinin's campaign organizer. ``They were looking for any old excuse to throw Arinin out'', he said. ``It didn't take them long to find one''.

The Central Election Commission in Moscow, to which the Ufa commission answers,gave no sign Thursday that it was planning to intervene. A spokeswoman said a working group had been sent to Bashkortostan ``to assist in preparations for Sunday's elections'' but declined to say what action they might take.

The mood in Ufa Thursday was one of resignation. ``What are we supposed to do?'' said Antonina Gershova, a teacher. She said that along with every other teacher in her school, the director forced her to put her signature on Rakhimov's electoral list.

``Even if we spoil our ballot papers Sunday, or don't vote at all, they will fix the count. There is no way out. Rakhimov will certainly be president again''.

Valentina Zhukova, too, said she is beginning to lose hope. Ten years ago, she lost her only son in the army and is now president of the Ufa branch of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee. When last month authorities closed down the Titan radio station, which broadcast interviews with opposition candidates, she joined crowds on Karl Marx street, in the center of Ufa, calling for freedom of speech.

``It was a peaceful demonstration of about 60 people'', she said. ``We wanted to raise the Russian flag over the Titan offices, to show that one building in Ufa at least represented democracy''.

But within minutes, she said, bus loads of police cordoned off the area and started arresting people. ``There was a whole regiment there, about 700 police officers'', she said. ``Then I noticed that they were taking gas into the Titan offices, and I knew they were going to use it to make the employees look like drunks or drug addicts. I lay under the wheels of a police car and told them to stop. I have lost my son. What more did I have to lose?''.

Zhukova was taken to the police station with the rest of the demonstrators and locked in a dark cell. ``They took off most of our clothes and would not let us go to the toilet. They kept us in those conditions all night'', she said.

``With readily available forces like that in the republic, there is very little hope that the situation will change''.

A small number of people are still trying to boycott the sham elections. Fufayev, in the Arinin camp, said, ``In the case of Rakhimov's winning the election with no other real candidates running against him, we will call for the results to be annulled''. He added, ``These elections are totally undemocratic, and someone has to put a stop to that''.

But others are less convinced. ``What is important to understand is the strength of the bureaucratic pyramid in the republic'', said Xavier LeTorrivellec, a French political scientist who has lived in Bashkortostan for the last three years.

``In the end, the people have no choice'', LeTorrivellec said. ``The system is too strong for them. Whether or not there is an alternative candidate on Sunday, they will have to vote for Rakhimov''.

12 июня 1998г. The Moscow Times