Seven prominent academicians and writers have
written
to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asking him to renominate
Daghestan's incumbent President Mukhu Aliyev for a second term. They
point out that recent opinion polls show that over 50 percent of the
population wants Aliyev, who is 69 and reputedly in poor health, to
serve a second term.
The signatories argue that Medvedev's
unexplained delay
in deciding between the five prospective candidates proposed by the
republican chapter of the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party has given
rise to an unprecedented barrage of mud-slinging that is destabilizing
the political situation. (One
report in mid-January alleged that Aliyev's relatives collected $30 million as a bribe to ensure he remains president.)
The
signatories also criticize the inclusion in the list of five candidates
of "front men for oligarchs and clans, persons with no influence or
authority in the republic and with no experience in governing a state."
This appears to be a reference to the candidates allegedly backed by
the Russian billionaire of Daghestan origin, Suleiman Kerimov.
They
pointed out that Daghestan's Muslim clergy and no fewer than 62
Daghestani parliament members have already written to Medvedev
affirming their support for Aliyev. Medvedev himself is widely believed
to be favoring Magomed Abdullayev who, like the Russian president,
taught law in St. Petersburg University in the 1990s.
According to the weekly "
Chernovik" on January 22, Medvedev must name a candidate no later than three weeks before Aliyev's term expires in early March.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Daghestans_Intelligentsia_Appeals_To_Medvedev/1948628.html