Presidential elections were held in the partially recognized

Republic of Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It covers and has a population of around 245,000 ...

in 2019. As no candidate gathered more than 50% of the votes in the first round 25 August, a second was held on 8 September between the top two candidates, incumbent President

Raul Khajimba Raul Jumkovich Khajimba (, ka, რაულ ჯუმკას-ძე ჰაჯიმბა; born 21 March 1959) is an Abkhazians, Abkhazian politician who served as President of Abkhazia from 25 September 2014 until 12 January 2020. He was also ...

of the

Forum for the National Unity of Abkhazia The Forum for the National Unity of Abkhazia (FNUA; ; ; ka, აფხაზეთის ეროვნული ერთიანობის ფორუმი, tr) is a prominent oppositional political party in Abkhazia. It is led by former ...

and Alkhas Kvitsinia of

Amtsakhara Amtsakhara () is a political party in Abkhazia. Foundation On 31 March 1999, Amtsakhara was founded on the initiative of Sergei Dbar, Vladimir Nachach, Aki Ardzinba and Garik Samanba and a number of others as a public organisation uniting v ...

. Khajimba was subsequently re-elected with a margin of less than 2% in the second round. On September 20, the Supreme Court in Abkhazia declared the decision of the Central Election Commission to recognize incumbent Raul Khajimba's victory in the second round of the presidential election as legal. In January 2020 the Abkhazian Supreme Court annulled the results, following protests against Khajimba. Khajimba resigned the presidency on 12 January, and new elections were called for 22 March.

Background

The People's Assembly had originally set a date for 21 July. In May 2019, the opposition demanded rescheduling the elections after the main opposition candidate

Aslan Bzhania Aslan Georgievich Bzhania (; ka, ასლან გიორგის-ძე ბჟანია, tr; ; born 6 April 1964) is an Abkhaz politician who served as the fifth president of Abkhazia from 23 April 2020 until his resignation on 19 Nove ...

appeared to have been poisoned in Russia. The elections were subsequently postponed to 25 August 2019 under pressure from supporters of the Bzhania.

Candidates

Registration for candidates officially opened on 26 June 2019. Ten candidate initially registered; but it was later determined that one candidate, Astamur Otirba, had not presented a vice-president in time.

Bzhaniya’s withdrawal from the election

Opposition leader

withdrew from the election on 15 July due to an apparent poisoning.

Results

Aftermath

Following the second round, Alkhas Kvitsinia contested the results in court. After the elections, Khajimba re-appointed

Valery Bganba Valeri Ramshukhovich Bganba (; born 26 August 1953) is an Abkhazian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Abkhazia from 18 September 2018 to 23 April 2020 and as the acting President of Abkhazia from 13 January to 23 April 2020. Prior t ...

as Prime Minister. Protests against Khajimba began on 9 January 2020, and on 10 January the Abkhazian Supreme Court annulled the results of the election.

References

{{portalbar, European Union, Politics, Europe Presidential elections in Abkhazia Annulled elections