He went on to the High Police School in Rostov-on-Don before becoming Deputy Head of the North Caucasus Transport Department of the former Chechen-Ingushetia government in Grozny in 1992.

In April 2003, he was appointed Interior Minister of Chechnya in the government of Akhmad Kadyrov and was made a Major General of the Chechen police.

The election of his predecessor had been marred by allegations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation by Russian soldiers and the exclusion of possible separatist candidates.

As a career bureaucrat, Alkhanov had no obvious popular base and was seen by many observers as the placeman of the government of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Critics of Russian policy in Chechnya claimed that the government would not permit Alkhanov to be defeated, and that the outcome of the vote had been predetermined well in advance.

The U.S. Department of State, and International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights questioned the fairness of the elections and highlighted the disqualification of Saidullayev.

Polling conditions have been questioned; Khamidov has said that his campaign staff had recorded numerous irregularities and will contest the vote results in court.