‘Parliament’ Calls on Abkhaz Leader to Resign, Khajimba Refuses
Moscow-backed Abkhaz âparliamentâ appealed to âpresidentâ Raul Khajimba to resign late on January 9 in order to avoid further escalation of the ongoing political tensions in Sokhumi. 19 members of Abkhaz âparliamentâ of 27 present at the special session endorsed the motion.
The appeal by the Abkhaz âparliamentâ comes as hundreds stormed Abkhaz leaderâs office earlier on Thursday, demanding new âpresidential pollsâ and Khajimbaâs resignation. Khajimba’s administration dubbed the storming of his office by hundreds of protesters as coup d’Ă©tat.
Khajimba refused to resign. Press office of Abkhaz leader responded to the appeal later yesterday, noting that âdespite its stated goal, to avoid further destabilization, [Khajimbaâs resignation] can only complicate the socio-political situation and lead to irreversible consequencesâ for Abkhazia. Khajimba offered his political rivals to start negotiations.
On January 10, Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement, noting that “we are closely following the developments of the internal political situation in Sokhum[i]. We are assessing the events that happened in this country as its internal affairs.” “We count on immediate stabilization of the circumstances in Abkhazia within the legal frames via peaceful direct dialogue between the interested parties,” it further added.
According to Abkhaz sources, the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Rashid Nurgaliyev arrived to occupied region on January 10. Media reports say Nurgaliyev is set to meet Abkhaz leader, as well as Mohamed Kilba, head of Abkhaz ‘security council’ in the morning of January 11.
Both, opposition and Abkhaz leader’s supporters rallied in Sokhumi today. Khajimba’s opponents keep occupying ‘presidential administration’ building.
Kvitsinia did not recognize Khajimba’s ‘presidency’ and filed the lawsuit at the âSupreme Courtâ of the occupied region, demanding annulment of the results of the September 8 ârunoff polls.â Kvitsinia lost an appeal in late September. Opposition asked for cancelling the results, claiming Khajimba failed to garner over 50% of the votes as demanded by the procedures. Kvitsinia then filed the lawsuit with same demand at âthe board of cassationâ of the “Supreme Court”.
“The cassation boardâ of Abkhaz âSupreme Courtâ planned to hold a hearing on January 9. Hence, opposition parties of âAmtsakharaâ and âUnited Abkhaziaâ called on their supporters to gather outside âthe Supreme Courtâ on Thursday. Supporters of opposition then stormed âpresidential administrationâ office in the afternoon of January 9.
Tensions regarding âpresidential pollsâ in Abkhazia have been running high since spring of the last year however, as Aslan Bzhania, one of the leaders of the opposition and a potential âpresidentialâ candidate, was poisoned with heavy metals in April 2019.
Opposition then protested in Sokhumi in May 2019 for postponing the polls. Abkhaz leader Raul Khajimba then agreed to postpone the date of âpresidential electionsâ, following his talks with opposition leaders. The sides decided to hold the polls on August 25, instead of July 21. Due to his health conditions, Bzhania still failed to participate in âelectionsâ however, and backed oppositionâs Kvitsinia to challenge Khajimba.
As none of the nine candidates managed to garner enough votes on August 25, repeat polls were held between the two frontrunners Raul Khajimba (23.85%) and Alkhas Kvitsinia (21.97%) in September.
Bzhania returned to Abkhazia in mid December following undertaking treatment in Moscow and Berlin, further strengthening opposition to challenge Khajimba’s rule.Â
more to follow
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