Republic Elections Decried

By Chloe Arnold

A candidate thrown off the ballot days before presidential elections in Bashkortostan says he will challenge the results in court, claiming they were falsified.

Alexander Arinin, a State Duma deputy, said Monday that he would seek a Supreme Court review of results showing Murtaza Rakhimov, president of the semi-autonomous republic at the foot of the Ural Mountains, re-elected with 70.2 percent of the vote over sole opponent Rif Kazakkulov, who received 9 percent.

``We have grave doubts about the official election figures produced by the Central Election Commission'', Arinin said at a Moscow news conference, citing reports from election observers in the capital Ufa that official totals were way off.

``According to our observers, 13 percent of the electorate voted for Rakhimov in Ufa and 9 percent for Kazakkulov'', he said. ``That means that the vast majority of people voted against both candidates''.

Arinin and two other candidates were barred from taking part in the June 14 election after the republic's election commission found irregularities with signatures on their nominating petitions.

That left Rakhimov with only one opponent --- the republic's timber minister, Kazakkulov, who local observers say is a supporter of the president and ran only to give the elections a veneer of competition.

The Supreme Court ruled that Arinin and another candidate had been illegally struck off the ballot and should be allowed to run. But the republic's election committee then cited new violations and refused to reinstate them in time for the election.

Arinin has the support of prominent liberal politicians Yegor Gaidar, leader of the Russia's Democratic Choice party, and Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky.

But Nikolai Petrov, an expert in regional politics at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said it was unlikely federal officials would alter the outcome. ``President Yeltsin has already congratulated Rakhimov on his victory'', he said. ``I cannot see the Supreme Court coming up with concrete results in Arinin's favor''.

23 июня 1998г. The Moscow Times