28 Oct 2021 10:00 30 years ago

Retired Gen. Dudayev winning Chechen presidential election

This news story first came out 30 years ago to the day, and we are publishing it today as part of Interfax's project, "Timeline of the Last Days of USSR. This Day 30 Years Ago." The project's goal is to reconstruct as fully as possible the timeline of the last few months of 1991 and to give everyone interested in understanding the historical processes of that period the opportunity to study and analyze the events that led to and accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the new Russian state. The complete timeline can be found in Russian.


MOSCOW. Oct 28 (Interfax) – Retired Gen. Dzhokhar Dudayev is winning the Chechen presidential election.

According to the preliminary data of the Central Elections Commission, 98% of eligible voters in rural areas - there is no data on Grozny - took part in the election of Chechen president on October 27. As many as 99% of them cast their ballots for Dudayev, who is chairman of the executive committee of the National Congress of the Chechen People, a member of the Central Elections Commission for Chechnya's presidential election told Interfax correspondent.

The electoral campaign was in fact held on volunteer basis, since the Council of Ministers of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic allocated no fund for it, the Central Elections Commission member said. The commission had no computing equipment and several more days are needed to complete the vote count.

Meanwhile, supporters of the executive committee of the National Congress of the Chechen People celebrated Dudayev's victory at the election in Grozny in the early hours of October 28. Sporadic gunshots were heard in the city.

Our correspondent also reported that a number of polling stations were closed at the elections. At the same time, two ballot boxes were installed on the square in front of the Council of Ministers. Every passer-by was able to cast his ballot there, often without showing any papers.

The election's final results will be published on November 2 in local newspapers.

The Supreme Council of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on October 24 recognized the election of Chechen president as “having no legal grounds."