Last gasp for regional democracy in Russia

MOSCOW - Russia held the last governor's election on Sunday before reforms introduced by President Vladimir Putin give the Kremlin the power to nominate the heads of regional governments.

Voters in the northern Nenets autonomous region cast ballots to choose their governor from 15 candidates in the kind of direct election that has been viewed as a pillar of the Russian federation for a decade.

Putin introduced the reforms as part of a package he said was needed to combat the threat of terrorism after a raid by Chechen rebels on a school killed more than 300 people, half of them children, in the southern town of Beslan in September.

Apart from scrapping gubernatorial polls, Putin has also ordered a change in the rules for registering political parties and electing the nation's parliament. Critics say the last move has complicated life for his political opposition.

Putin's critics charge the president has cynically used the Beslan tragedy to roll back democracy and point out that his initiatives come on the back of successful campaigns to quell dissenting opinions in Russia's raucous media and crush the political ambitions of prominent businessmen.

Putin rejects the charges, saying that changes were meant to improve rather than destroy Russia's democracy.

Gubernatorial elections were introduced in 1995 to give the 89 regions a degree of autonomy in adapting their historical, ethnic and religious traditions as parts of the Russian Federation, which stretches along 11 time zones.

Putin argued the elections needed to be scrapped because they had often been manipulated by powerful business and political groups and failed to reflect the will of the voters.

But critics say the Kremlin lacks effective managers to man crucial positions in the regions and instruments to control the whole country from Moscow. Under the new rules, which will be applied in nearly 20 regions in 2005, governors will be nominated by the Kremlin and approved by local parliaments. The first nominations are expected in late March.

- REUTERS