Abkhazia: Elections on the Horizon
Below is an excerpt from an article published by The
A total of 119 candidates will be running for 35 seats in the Abkhaz Parliament this Sunday: The elections to the National Assembly of the
More than 100 international election observers will follow the vote, with four MPs from Pridnestrovie being part of a monitoring delegation.
Abkhazia, located to the northwest of the
Georgian media sources are reporting that the upcoming elections are marked by confrontation between supporters of Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh and Vice-President Raul Khajimba – old rivals who contested for the presidency in 2004 elections. A power-sharing agreement between the two men in December 2004 put an end to a two-month standoff that was triggered after the disputed presidential elections. But a wide spectrum of opposition groups and candidates, from left to right, are entering the fray and making their voices heard. […]
International election observers are expected from a dozen countries around the world, including leading election monitoring missions made up of NGOs from
Opposition parties with strong following
In Abkhazia […] the vast majority of the opposition coincides with the government on the main goal:
A group of Abkhaz opposition MP candidates have unleashed criticism of Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh for interfering in their election campaign and hence violating election code of the unrecognized republic, Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress reported on February 26.
19 opposition MP candidates running in the Abkhaz parliamentary elections scheduled for March 4 argue that Sergey Bagapsh intervened in the election campaign by criticizing several opposition MP candidates during a televised Q&A session on February 23.
During the televised press conference, Bagapsh launched into heavy criticism of opposition MP candidate
The main political movements competing will be United Abkhazia, Aitara (Revival), Amtsakhara (Signal Light) and others who support the Abkhaz president. They will have to compete with "Forum for National Unity," a broadbased opposition movement under which the followers of VP Raul Khajimba are united. The Abkhaz Communist Party, another opposition party, will also take part in parliamentary elections.
Disinformation from
Predictably,
The peoples of Abkhazia and Georgia are different ethnically and linguistically. Georgians value freedom and independence very highly, and so do the Abkhazians. They have very little in common, besides a mutual wish for independence and freedom. […]
Participating in Sunday's vote in Abkhazia, the observers include representatives of parliaments and civil society organizations from