Kadyrov Jnr.'s authority is unquestioned, officials in Chechnya say.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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Kadyrov Jnr. Heading for Lifetime Presidency
Chechnya’s constitutional assembly voted on Thursday to prolong the president and parliament’s terms in office to five years. The decision is now to be put to a national vote. A motion to scrap the limit for the number of the president’s terms in office may also be considered. Should this decision be endorsed, the incumbent Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov will have good chance to become a lifetime president.
Chechen high-ranking regional officials as well as local legislators convened for a session of the Constitutional Assembly on Tuesday to vote on President Ramzan Kadyrov’s initiative to prolong parliament and president’s terms in office from four to five years.
The deputies also voted to scrap the presidential election and let the Russian president appoint the head of Chechnya, which is the case with other regional leaders. “I believe the republic’s constitution needs to be amended to comply with the federal law,” Mr. Kadyrov told the assembly. The vote also transformed Chechnya’s two-chamber parliament into one chamber. The amendment will now go to a national referendum.
The Chechen constitution limits the president’s time in office by two terms. This provision for regional leadership, however, was deleted from the federal constitution after Russia abolished governors’ elections. The motion to throw away the time limit may be put to vote in Chechnya as well. “This decision has not been made yet, but there’s plenty of time before the referendum [in December],” a member of the Constitution Assembly told Kommersant.
Should the vote go smoothly, Mr. Kadyrov Jnr. will have good chance to become Chechnya’s lifetime president. “Ramzan Kadyrov has restored Grozny and the whole republic,” a member of Thursday’s session said in an interview with Kommersant. “His authority is unquestioned. It’s hard to imaging someone challenging him at elections.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 22, 2007
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