23:54, 8 October 2003

Participation of refugees in Chechen presidential elections

40 Chechen refugees living in tent camps and temporary accommodation centers on the territory of Ingushetia agreed to take part in the Chechen presidential elections. Special busses were apportioned to get displaced persons to the village of Assinovskaya in Ingushetia's Sunzha district where a polling station was opened for them to vote. However only internally displaced persons from the tent camp "Bart", which is situated in the town of Karabulak, decided to show high consciousness. According to some data, the authorities expected a minimum of 1.5-2 thousand refugees to participate in the voting. A simple deduction can be made that the internally displaced persons in Ingushetia practically boycotted the elections of the president of Chechnya.

Source: Infromation Center of the Council of NGOs