Residents of Chechnya report that they are forced to vote

In Chechnya, local residents are under pressure to vote with the aim to raise the voter turnout on the election day; while employees of state institutions were obliged to be present at polling stations throughout the whole day on March 4, local residents assert.

"Our district policeman came to us and warned that on March 4 we must go for the election," Markha D., a resident of Grozny, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and added that in the same mandatory manner the policeman recommended for whom to vote.

At the same time, employees of state institutions have reported that they were "ordered" to vote on March 4. "We were told to come to work, from where they'd take us to the polling station," said a medical employee from Grozny.

"One of our employees had jokingly said that perhaps in this case we should take more clothes to redress, in case they'd take us to several polling stations. The boss relied quite seriously: 'Indeed, I didn't think about it. Well, take a pair of additional shawls and sweaters'," the source said about the "instructions".

According to another resident of the Chechen capital, at the post office, where he went to pick up some receipt, he was given a leaflet – against his signature – with an appeal to the citizens of the country on behalf of the regional branch of the Union of Pensioners, published in the Russian and Chechen languages, where citizens were also urged to vote for a particular candidate.

The republic's CEC called the information about preparation of large-scale falsifications at the election "an imaginary problem."

"The talks about upcoming frauds, drop-in of ballot papers and the like are mere provocations, said the CEC.