Grozny, 24 January 1997 (RFE/RL) - A top Chechen electoral official says complete, detailed electoral lists will be ready in time for Monday's presidential and parliamentary elections in the breakaway Russian republic.
Our correspondent in Grozny quotes the press-secretary of Chechnya's electoral commission Shakhman Akubulatov as saying today that complete lists will be ready by Sunday. At least 400,000 voters are expected to be included in the lists.
Akubulatov also said ethnic Chechens living in the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan will be allowed to take part in the vote at special polling stations along the Chechen border.
The election official told RFE/RL that two of the 16 presidential candidates, have recently withdrawn their candidacy. He said some parliamentary candidates are also withdrawing in the last hours before the poll. A total of 63 members of the next Chechen parliament are to be elected from among some 850 candidates.
Meanwhile, officials in Dagestan report today that five rail workers there were injured in an explosion along railroad tracks there close to the Chechen border. Regional Interior Minister Kazbek Makhashev told reporters that security forces were trying to determine the cause of the blast.