Early indications in the troubled semi-autonomous Russian republic of Chechnya suggested Moscow-backed Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov would score an easy victory over his six rivals in Sunday's presidential elections. Unofficial polls in the capital Grozny and Chechnya's second largest city of Gudermes showed that nearly all voters voted for the 47-year-old Kremlin favourite in an election regarded by many analysts as a formality. Around 60 per cent of the around 570,000 voters had cast their ballots by late afternoon, the election authority in Grozny said. The first results were expected late Sunday night. The vote was called after president Akhmat Kadyrov, who had been elected in October 2003, was assassinated during a World War II Victory Day parade in Grozny on May 9, 2004. Chechen websites close to rebel groups described the elections as a "public forgery" while critics have termed the poll a show of Moscow's power without any democratic legitimacy. The only candidate given a chance of beating Alkhanov, businessman Malik Saidullajev, was excluded from the election on the grounds that his identity papers did not match his person. --More 2345 Local Time 2045 GMT
