Another complaint reviewed by the Kalmyk court on the same day was filed against his rival, Moscow entrepreneur Baatr Shondzhiyev, who is believed to enjoy the support of the so-called ‘St. Petersburgers’. The complaint against Shondzhiyev, too, was rejected.
The pre-election serenity in Kalmykia proved deceptive. According to Gazeta.Ru sources, in the weeks leading up to the day of voting, two Kremlin groups had clashed over the Kalmyk presidency. The head of the Kremlin administration Alexander Voloshin and his deputy Vladislav Sourkov openly supported the incumbent Ilyumzhinov – not because they truly admire the authoritarian ruler, but because the stability of the multi-ethnic, cash-strapped Caspian province is considered to be of more importance.
As for the team from St. Petersburg, and in particular, the Kremlin official in charge of staffing issues, Viktor Ivanov, and Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, they actively backed the candidacy of the businessman Baatr Shondzhiyev.
As Gazeta.Ru wrote earlier Ilyumzhinov’s supporters are convinced that the unsuccessful attempt to remove the republic’s Interior Ministry chief Timofei Sasykov from his post was initiated by Viktor Ivanov and Boris Gryznlov. In the opinion of some observers, if Sasykov had been suspended, the federal authorities could have easily banned the incumbent from the race. However, the scandal ended before it began. According to our sources, the Kalmyk president and Moscow agreed that Sasykov would retain his post until after the election campaign.
That all the ‘i’s were dotted and ‘t’s crossed was clear from the kindly air assumed by the Central Election Committee chief Alexander Veshnyakov who arrived in Elista on Friday to personally oversee the election.
''There are no grounds to speak of poor organization. Equally there are no grounds to assume that the voting results were rigged,'' Veshnyakov told reporters following his meeting with local electoral officials.
Of all the politicians from the federal level, only the State Duma chairman Gennady Seleznyov and the leader of the Union of Rightist Forces Boris Nemtsov paid a visit to Kalmykia prior to the elections. Seleznyov arrived to express his support to Ilyumzhinov. However, Elista residents still cannot forgive the speaker for not deigning to converse with the common people.
Nemtsov proved more easygoing and willingly talked with the locals, telling several anecdotes about Kirsan Ilyumzhinov rather than urging them to vote for the SPS candidate Natalia Mazhikova.
''He was not a bad chap. But power corrupts, you know,'' said Nemtsov addressing the gathering of the Kalmyk State University students and teaching staff. According to Nemtsov, it is high time for Ilyumzhinov to leave; his term in office has now expired. Ilyumzhinov has held the presidential post for 2 terms in succession, and it is common knowledge that the SPS is campaigning for a ban on incumbent regional leaders running for a 3rd consecutive term.
''Don’t you worry about Kirsan,'' the SPS leader encouraged his audience. ''He is rich. He has such a villa in Moscow…''
That Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is fabulously rich, while most of Kalmykia’s residents live far below the poverty line is no secret in Kalmykia. And yet, most of them regard the fact with a Buddhist’s serenity. There is the impression that the people have grown used to the constant problems with heating and water supplies, to the poverty and soaring unemployment rates (up to 25 per cent), while their president collects luxury cars, and appears on numerous billboards in the company of the Dalai Lama, Boris Yeltsin and Russia’s Patriarch.
The only portrait that is missing is one of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with Vladimir Putin. The Russian President has never received the Kalmyk leader in the Kremlin. The latter has repeatedly said that he would win the vote without any help from the federal centre anyway. His confidence is easy to explain – at the last election in 1995 Ilyumzhinov scored 85 per cent.
After 96 percent of the ballot papers had been processed in the republic on Monday, Kalmykia’s election authorities reported that the incumbent had secured 47.6 percent of the votes. To win the election, however, by local electoral laws a candidate is required to gather 50 percent plus 1 vote. Thus, the incumbent has failed to enlist the support of the majority of Kalmyk voters, meaning a second round of elections will determine the winner.
According to the latest reports, Ilyumzhinov’s key rival Baatr Shondzhiyev secured 13.55 percent of votes, while the director general of the JSC Nikoil Kalmykia Nikolai Ochirov came third with 12.74 percent. The voter turnout amounted to 67.5 percent.
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