Murtaza Rakhimov has won re-election with some 73 percent of the vote, RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported on 14 June. Turnout was high, at nearly 70 percent. But Rakhimov's margin of victory was surprisingly low, given that he faced only token opposition on the ballot from the republic's forestry minister, Rif Kazakkulov, who gained 9.3 percent. Some 15 percent of voters cast ballots against all candidates, including nearly 35 percent of voters in Ufa, the republic's capital, ITAR-TASS reported.

The conduct of the campaign drew sharp criticism from Rakhimov's political opponents and from some Russian media. Three would-be opponents were excluded from the ballot, and the local media provided one-sided support for the incumbent. In addition, the republican authorities shut down an independent radio station in late May and arrested its director, prompting protests involving several thousand residents of Ufa. LB

In an interview with RFE/RL's Moscow bureau on 15 June, Duma deputy Vyacheslav Igrunov of the Yabloko faction said the Central Electoral Commission has ample reason to declare the presidential election in Bashkortostan invalid. During the final week of the campaign, the Russian Supreme Court instructed the republican electoral commission to register two candidates who were excluded from the ballot, including Duma deputy Aleksandr Arinin of the Our Home Is Russia faction. However, the republican commission defied the court ruling and an appeal from the Central Electoral Commission, refusing to add any more names to the ballot.

Arinin and the other would-be candidate, Marat Mirgazyamov, have vowed to seek to have the election overturned. Despite Arinin's difficulties, former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, the leader of the Our Home Is Russia movement, endorsed Rakhimov's re-election bid during a visit to Bashkortostan on 10 June. LB

15 июня 1998г. Радио ``Свобода'' / ``Свободная Европа'' --- Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty