Votes Recounted in Abkhazia

The commission, set up under order of the Abkhaz Supreme Court, has re-counted votes cast during the October 3 presidential elections in the unrecognized republic, reported the Russian news agency Interfax on October 27.

Member of the commission Ruslan Pantia, who is the representative of the pro-governmental presidential candidate Raul Khajimba, said that violations have been found in some of the vote tallies, hence those protocols should be declared as invalid.

No other details of the re-count have been reported. no comments by the representative of the opposition candidate Sergey Bagapsh have been reported so far.

The commission has to submit the results of the vote re-count to the Abkhazian Supreme Court.

Presidential candidate Raul Khajimba, who along with the local government?s support also enjoys backing from Moscow, appealed the Supreme Court, demanding the cancellation of the Abkhaz Central Election Commission?s October 11 protocol, which declared Sergey Bagapsh as the winner of the elections, with 50.08% of the vote.

The commission, which re-counted the votes, was composed of a representative from the Central Election Commission and two representatives of each presidential candidate.