The Kremlin-backed candidate Alu Alkhanov has got 75.1 percent of the ballots in Sunday's presidential poll in Russia's Chechen republic after 64.1 percent of the votes were counted, the election commission said early Monday.
The 47-year-old Chechen interior minister was followed by Movsur Khamidov, head of the Chechen department of the Federal Security Service, who only collected 8.6 percent of the votes counted so far, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported.
None of the other five candidates vying for presidency in the election has won over 5 percent of the ballots, the commission said.
Under the electoral law, a candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the total votes will win the presidency for the next four years.
Alkhanov has been widely expected to win a landslide victory in the election, held to replace the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov who was killed in a terrorist bomb blast on May 9.
As a favorite of both Russian President Vladimir Putin's government and the Chechen administration, Alkhanov has vowed to carry on Kadyrov's policies and to treat security and social stability as top priorities while trying to restore the tattered economy and improve people's life.
Putin has made clear his support for Alkhanov and even made an unprecedented promise to him that Chechnya can keep the revenue from its oil exports for its reconstruction.
The inauguration ceremony for the new president is expected to take place within the next two weeks and the outgoing Chechen government would resign immediately after that.
The Chechen president will then name an acting premier in charge of forming a new cabinet.
Alkhanov promised Monday that Sergei Abramov and Ramzan Kadyrov, son of slain Kadyrov, will remain their positions as premier and first vice premier in the new government if he wins the election and he is not planning a big reshuffle in the cabinet.
"We all are one team and we shall solve all important problems together," Alkhanov was cited as saying.
"Abramov is a true professional and he has learnt Chechnya very well, while Ramzan Kadyrov will be in charge of security issues," he said.
He also called for joint efforts by Chechen and federal authorities to improve "effectiveness in the implementation of tasks to restore Chechnya's social and economic life put forward by the Russian president."
"Moscow and Grozny must act in unison in this process," Alkhanov added.
Taus Dzhabrailov, chairman of the Chechen State Council, said parliamentary elections in the republic will be held within three months after the presidential poll.
(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2004)
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