Second candidate for Chechen presidency registered

On June 2, the Chechen Central Election Commission registered Vakha Visayev, a 40-year-old resident of the republic, as a candidate for the Chechen presidency. Vakha Visayev is an adviser to the president of Chechnya. He holds Ph.D. (Russian Candidate of Science) in Economics. He lives in the second largest town of Chechnya, Gudermes. Thus, Mr Visayev became the second officially registered candidate for the post of Chechen president. On May 29, the election commission registered Maret Gorchkhanova, an Urus-Martan district administration official, as a presidential contender.

Meanwhile, residents of the village of Meken-Yurt situated in the Nadterechny district in the north of Chechnya addressed the republican interior minister, Alu Alkhanov, in the evening of June 2 asking him to run for the Chechen presidency.

Some experts believe the initiative to nominate the Chechen interior minister comes from the authorities. But they want to demonstrate in such a way that it is people's will. If to take into consideration that Alu Alkhanov is a native of the south-western Urus-Martan district of Chechnya, it would have been more logic if residents of this district had offered him to take part in the election. However it did not happen for some reason. General Alkhanov himself has given no comments on the matter so far.