The main Kremlin-backed United Russia party was leading in early returns from Chechnya's first parliamentary elections since federal troops reinvaded more than six years ago, a Russian television station said.
The elections were the centerpiece of the Kremlin's strategy to restore stability to the southern region. Few international observers, however, were monitoring Sun-day's elections for the flaws that have marred three previous votes, and a Council of Europe fact-finding mission decried a climate of fear which it said made it hard to hold a genuine democratic ballot.
Analysts say the vote is aimed at cementing the power of Ramzan Kadyrov, 28, the son of the assassinated president, Akhmed Kadyrov.
After casting his vote, Kadyrov told the Interfax news agency that the once-separatist republic was "evolving into a fully fledged member of the Russian Federation."
Election officials said turnout could have been as high as 70 percent, but the pro-independence Kavkaz Center Web site claimed a figure of 5 percent to 7 percent and denounced the elections as "the latest farce."
More than 24,000 police and troops provided tight security during the vote. Chechnya is still beset by violence, with rebel fighters launching regular attacks on government troops and police. Martial law is still in force, and before the election human-rights groups said a free vote would be impossible.
A senior policeman in Grozny said the vote had been decided beforehand and warned it could usher in a period of civil war as Kadyrov moves to assert his complete control over armed groups which support Russian rule.
A broad array of candidates campaigned for 58 seats in the two-chamber parliament, including Mogamed Khambiyev who served as defense minister during brief independence from 1997 to 1999 and who was still fighting alongside separatist militants 18 months ago.
He said: "Today there is madness in Chechnya, but I want to use political means, not arms, to fight it. Our first task is to stop the war here."
United Russia was leading the field, NTV television reported, citing election officials. Turnout exceeded 60 percent, it said.
The United Russia reportedly won 60 percent of the vote on party lists; the affiliation of candidates elected in single-ballot races wasn't immediately clear but most are expected to have links with the United Russia.
Marina Makhchiyeva, a 59-year old retiree selling onions, cigarettes and dried fish near a polling station in the village of Assinovskaya, some 45km west of the capital, Grozny, said two of her sons were killed during the region's second war and her third son died after being beaten by suspected paramilitaries.
"I'm sick of burying my chil-dren," she said. She planned to vote later Sunday, but said "nothing is going to change. This is Chechnya, nothing ever changes."
An estimated 100,000 civilians, soldiers and rebels have died in two wars in Chechnya since federal troops first swept into the region in 1994 to crush its bid for independence.
Russia's forces withdrew after a humiliating defeat in 1996 but stormed back three years later after Chechen rebels raided a neighboring Russian region and a series of deadly apartment-block blasts were also blamed on the separatists.
Moscow hopes that the fourth popular vote since March 2003 will serve as a further catalyst for stability. The Kremlin says the three previous polls -- two presidential, one a referendum -- point to a return to normalcy, along with a recent rock concert, the construction of a new water amusement park, the success of Grozny's professional soccer team and a boxing tournament opened by Mike Tyson in September.
Still, unemployment is endemic and daily violence persists, with rebel fighters staging regular hit-and-run attacks on troops and police and skirmishes between feuding criminal gangs vying for some of Chechnya's substantial oil wealth.
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