Polls have opened in Russia\'s breakaway republic of Chechnya in a controversial presidential election, the first here since Russian troops poured in four years ago. The Russian authorities massively tightened security, deploying 15,000 soldiers and armoured personnel carriers to guard the 426 polling stations which opened at 8:00 am (0400 GMT). According to the electoral commission, 560,000 registered voters have a choice of seven candidates in a Kremlin-organized poll which Moscow pledged would be a free and fair opportunity for Chechens to choose their leader. But critics say, and many Chechens believe, that the election is heavily weighted in favor of Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechnya\'s Moscow-appointed administrator, whose chief rivals were either removed or forced out of the race. Kadyrov, 52, a mufti and one-time rebel who fought Russian troops during the first Russo-Chechen war, threw his lot in with Moscow at the start of the second campaign. However, his popularity had since plummeted and his hold on the republic is tenuous, with little or no improvement to ordinary Chechen lives, daily attacks on pro-Russian officials and rampant kidnappings blamed on his armed militia as often as on the guerrilla. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League are the only international organisations sending observers to the election, while Russian and European rights groups have refused to send observers to the poll. Polling stations also opened on the border with the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, to ensure that refugees who had fled their war-ravaged homeland to shelter in Ingushetian shantytowns could also cast their votes. (AFP)