Chechens vote

Rebel Chechnya voted for a new president yesterday in a virtually one-horse race the Kremlin hopes will help bring peace to the war-devastated region, but which many observers doubt will make a real difference.

All the other leading candidates have already dropped out, leaving Kremlin-backed candidate Akhmad Kadyrov as near certain winner when results are announced today.

"There will be no second round," a confident Kadyrov said after voting in his native village of Tsentoroi in foothills south of the regional capital Grozny. One of seven candidates, the former Muslim cleric needs over half the vote to win outright.

There were reports of shootings overnight at three polling stations in and near Grozny but officials said voting was proceeding normally, putting the turnout at over 60 per cent.

Posters went up throughout Chechnya showing Kadyrov standing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin, making no doubt whom the Kremlin wants to run the troublesome province.

Putin, who has diluted international censure over Chechnya by linking the fight against separatists to the global war on terror, wants the election to further anchor the region in Russia and help end years of brutal and costly war.

By the evening of election day, Grozny looked like a ghost town of shattered ruins and pock-marked walls, testimony to the brutal fighting of the past 10 years between separatist rebels and Russian forces.

Reporters travelling with official escorts were housed for the night in a military base surrounded by rings of landmines.

Chechen rebels dismiss the election as pointless, vowing to continue to fight to end 150 years of Russian dominance and turn their mountainous Muslim province into an independent state.