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 Abkhaziaportal |
Presidential elections were held in Abkhazia on 26 August 2011. This was the fifth such election since the post of President of the Republic of Abkhazia was created in 1994. The election was held to elect the successor of president Sergei Bagapsh who died in office on 29 May 2011.
The election was originally scheduled to take place in 2014, five years after the previous election; however, the Constitution of Abkhazia required an election to be held within three months after the unexpected death of incumbent president Sergei Bagapsh on 29 May. On 8 June the People's Assembly set the election date for 26 August. [1] The MPs decided against earlier dates such as 20 August, which is immediately after the summer holidays, as the election is largely organised by teachers and to allow for repairs to school buildings to be completed, where many polling stations are located. [2]
According to the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic of Abkhazia, candidates for the Presidency have to:
Prospective candidates have to be nominated between 27 June and 17 July. [4] This can be done either by an initiative group of at least 10 people with a list of between 2000 and 2500 signatures, or by a political party registered with the Central Election Commission. [5] The only parties registered in this way are United Abkhazia, the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia, the Party of the Economic Development of Abkhazia, the People's Party and the Communist Party. After the nomination period ends, the Central Election Commission will verify the signature lists and whether candidates satisfy the set requirements. To test the nominees' proficiency in Abkhaz, it has established a language commission. [6] Registration of the candidates has to be completed before 27 July and two days after their registration the Central Election Commission has to make public the list of nominees whose candidacy had been approved. [4]
All three candidates who were nominated for the election successfully completed their registration: Acting President Alexander Ankvab, Prime Minister Sergei Shamba and opposition leader Raul Khajimba. Following their nomination, Shamba and his vice presidential candidate, Shamil Adzynba, as well as Khajimba and his running mate Svetlana Jergenia applied for registration on 16 July. [7] [8] Ankvab and his vice presidential candidate Mikhail Logua filed their application on 17 July. [9] The three presidential candidates passed their Abkhaz language test on 20 July 2011. [10] All candidates were registered by the CEC on 25 July [11] and received their certificates on 26 July.
| Presidential candidate | Career | Vice presidential candidate | Career | Political support |
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| Raul Khajimba | Svetlana Jergenia | |||
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| Alexander Ankvab | Mikhail Logua | |||
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| Sergei Shamba | Shamil Adzynba |
The election campaign official began when the candidates received their registration certificates on 26 July. According to election law, Alexander Ankvab and Sergei Shamba had to take leave from their offices. [24] Correspondingly, Parliament Speaker Nugzar Ashuba temporarily took over as Acting President and Vice-Premier Beslan Kubrava as Prime Minister.
On 19 July, the League of Voters "For Fair Elections" held its first press conference to announce that it would monitor the upcoming election as in previous years. [25]
Shamba's campaign was led by Beslan Eshba. [26]
Each presidential candidate received three hours of free air time on national state television in the four weeks running up to election day, and each Vice Presential candidate one hour. During the first week, candidates had the choice between an hour of live interaction with voters and sending in a pre-recorded DVD. In the second week, the candidates, alone or assisted by no more than four associates, received one hour of live interaction with voters. In the third and fourth weeks, first the vice-presidential candidate and then the presidential candidates had the opportunity to answer alternatingly questions from voters and from officially registered media.
Apart from these broadcasts, each candidate could send in commercials up to five minutes, which were broadcast on weekdays between 1 and 25 August, three times daily (8:00, 18:00 and 20:00).
The order in which the broadcasts of candidates appeared was determined by draw, and was as follows: [27]
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Order of commercials | |
| Week 1 (1–5 August) | Khajimba | Shamba | Ankvab | Khajimba – Ankvab – Shamba | ||
| Week 2 (8–12 August) | Khajimba | Shamba | Ankvab | Khajimba – Shamba – Ankvab | ||
| Week 3 (15–19 August) | Logua | Jergenia | Adzynba | Ankvab – Khajimba – Shamba | ||
| Week 4 (22–26 August) | Shamba | Khajimba | Ankvab | Ankvab – Shamba – Khajimba |
| Date | Source | Sergei Shamba | Alexander Ankvab | Raul Khajimba |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–12 July 2011 | Dobrososedstvo | 30.1% | 26.1% | 8.0% |
The CEC decided that in order to reduce costs and simplify the organisation of the election, there would be no separate polling stations and precinct election commissions for military units. Instead, it sent a letter to the Ministry of Defence requesting that soldiers should receive leave ten days before the election, allowing them to collect absentee ballots and thus vote in a polling station of their choosing. [28]
According to the Abkhazian electoral commission, preliminary results showed a first round victory for Ankvab over Shamba and Khajimba. [29]
The official results, released on 27 August, showed only small differences, and Alexander Ankvab was elected in the first round. [30] He is to be sworn in on 26 September. [31]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Ankvab | Aitaira | 58,657 | 56.23 | |
| Sergei Shamba | Party for the Economic Development of Abkhazia | 22,456 | 21.53 | |
| Raul Khajimba | Forum for the National Unity of Abkhazia | 21,177 | 20.30 | |
| Against all | 2,023 | 1.94 | ||
| Total | 104,313 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 104,313 | 97.63 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 2,532 | 2.37 | ||
| Total votes | 106,845 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 148,556 | 71.92 | ||
| Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs | ||||
Raul Jumkovich Khajimba is an Abkhazian politician, and served as President of Abkhazia from 25 September 2014 until 12 January 2020. He was also Chairman of the Forum for the National Unity of Abkhazia from 2010 to 2015. Khajimba previously held the offices of Vice President (2005–2009), Prime Minister (2003–2004) and Defence Minister (2002–2003). He unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, 2009 and 2011. He resigned the presidency in 2020 due to protests against him.
The prime minister of Abkhazia is the de facto head of government of the partially recognized Republic of Abkhazia, that is de jure part of Georgia.
The office of Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia was created on 17 May 1993, during the 1992–1993 war with Georgia. Empirical data nevertheless show that Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry also enacts diplomatic relations, such as the sending of diplomatic notes, with various countries across the world, including Nauru, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Syria. It is also active in managing relations with other post-Soviet de facto states such as South Ossetia, Transnistria, and the Lugansk People's Republic.
Sergei Shamba is a senior politician from Abkhazia. He is currently a member of the People's Assembly of Abkhazia and Chairman of United Abkhazia. He was Prime Minister of Abkhazia under President Sergei Bagapsh from 13 February 2010 until 27 September 2011. Between 1997 and 2010 he had been Minister for Foreign Affairs under both Bagapsh and his predecessor Vladislav Ardzinba, with only a half-year interruption in 2004. Shamba has twice unsuccessfully participated in presidential elections, in 2004 and 2011. He has been a staunch proponent for dialogue between Abkhazia and Georgia.
Aleksandr Zolotinskovich Ankvab is an Abkhaz politician and businessman who was the president of Abkhazia from 29 May 2011 until his resignation on 1 June 2014. He previously served as prime minister from 2005 to 2010 and as vice-president from 2010 to 2011 during the presidency of Sergei Bagapsh. He was appointed prime minister again on 23 April 2020.
United Abkhazia is a political party in Abkhazia. United Abkhazia was founded on March 25, 2004, as a socio-political movement, with the specific goal of presenting a single opposition candidate for the October 2004 presidential elections.
Presidential elections were held in Abkhazia on 3 October 2004, the first that were competitive. Election law prohibited incumbent President Vladislav Ardzinba from running for a third term and he instead backed Prime Minister Raul Khadjimba, who also enjoyed support from the Russian authorities. Khadjimba's main opponent was Sergei Bagapsh, who was supported by the two major opposition parties, United Abkhazia and Amtsakhara, and later also by Aitaira when their candidate Alexander Ankvab was barred from running in a controversial decision by the Central Election Commission.
The Abkhazian passport is issued to citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia for the purpose of international travel and for the purpose of legal identification within Abkhazia. As Abkhazia is only recognised by Russia, Venezuela, Syria, Nicaragua and Nauru, for all other destinations Abkhazian citizens must use another passport for international travel.
Daur Tarba is the current Minister for Agriculture of Abkhazia. In the past, he has also been Chairman of United Abkhazia at a time when it was the ruling party, Vice Premier and head of the Ochamchira District.
Presidential elections were held in Abkhazia on 12 December 2009, the fourth such elections since the post of President of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia was created in 1994. The result was a victory for incumbent president Sergei Bagapsh, who received 63% of the vote, winning a second term in office. Bagapsh competed against four opposition candidates: former vice president and prime minister Raul Khajimba, who came second behind Bagapsh in the 2004 presidential election, and newcomers Beslan Butba, Zaur Ardzinba and Vitali Bganba. Khajimba had stated that he, Ardzinba and Butba would support each other should one of them reach the second round of the election. Bagapsh was inaugurated on 12 February 2010.
Stanislav Lakoba is an academic and politician from Abkhazia. Lakoba was Sergei Bagapsh's vice-presidential candidate in the 2004 presidential election and from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2011 to 2013 he served as Secretary of the Security Council. He is Professor in Archeology, Ethnology and History at the Abkhazian State University.
Sergei Matosyan is an Armenian-Abkhazian colonel and opposition politician. He became the Deputy Speaker of the People's Assembly of Abkhazia in 2010, and is a former Minister.
The Government of President Sergei Bagapsh was the Government of the Republic of Abkhazia from 2005 until 2011.
Leonid Yurivich Dzapshba is a two-time Minister for Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, a former Presidential candidate and the former head of the Football Federation of Abkhazia.
The Abkhazian Revolution took place in 2014, when President Aleksandr Ankvab resigned after hundreds of demonstrators stormed his office. After mass protests in the capital Sukhumi and the occupation of his office on 27 May, Ankvab fled to his hometown of Gudauta and ultimately resigned on 1 June, after previously denouncing the demonstration as an attempted coup d'état.
Presidential elections were held in the Republic of Abkhazia on 24 August 2014. The sixth such elections since the post of President of Abkhazia was created in 1994, they were held early due to the resignation of President Alexander Ankvab on 1 June 2014 following the 2014 Abkhazian political crisis. Four candidates contested the elections, which were won by Raul Khadjimba, who received just over 50% of the vote.
The Government of President Raul Khajimba was the Government of the Republic of Abkhazia from 2014 until 2020.
Rauf Aslanovich Tsimtsba was the third Minister for Taxes and Fees of Abkhazia, serving between 2011 and 2016 in the Governments of President Bagapsh, President Ankvab and President Khajimba. Tsimtsba was originally appointed on 4 April 2011 by Sergei Bagapsh to succeed Vakhtang Pipia, who had been appointed Vice Premier on 30 March. Before that, Tsimtsba had headed the Department for the Taxation of Legal Entities within the ministry. Following the Death of Bagapsh one month later and the election of Alexander Ankvab, Tsimtsba was re-appointed on 11 October.
Shamil Adzynba is the current First Vice Premier of Abkhazia in the Government of President Khajimba, and a two-time acting Prime Minister.
Dmitri Shamba is the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Abkhazia to the People's Assembly of Abkhazia and the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.
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