Abkhazia: new president inaugurated – opposition holds party meeting

On October 9, two high-profile political events took place in Abkhazia: the inauguration of President Raul Khajimba and an enlarged meeting of the opposition party Amtsakhara.

The main message at the opposition congress: Khajimba’s assumption of office is a violation of the law.

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The authorities and invited guests (more than 700 people) began to gather in the large hall of the cabinet an hour before the scheduled time for the ceremony.

According to the law, the inauguration of the president of Abkhazia protocol consists of an oath – an oath in the Abkhaz language, as well as the transfer to the head of state of the attributes of presidential power.  This is the standard, seal, emblem and Abkhaz staff “Alabashcha”.

The president must swear an oath on the constitution in the presence of members of parliament and judges of the Constitutional Court.

There are 35 people in the Abkhaz parliament, but only 21 MPs came to the inauguration ceremony.  

The day before, a group of eight opposition deputies announced that they would not come in protest and disagreement with the ongoing process.

 An influential politician, ex-president Alexander Ankvab, who is considered the unspoken leader of the opposition, did not join the protest group.  However, he did not come to the inauguration.

In the hall of the cabinet of ministers there were also ex-presidential candidates – Almas Japua, Astamur Kakaliya, Leonid Dzapshba and Oleg Arshba.  All of them did not make it into the second round of the presidential election.

The opposition meeting was opened by the ex-presidential candidate, the leader of the Amtsakhara party Alkhas Kvitsinia, who just barely lost in the second round of elections on September 8.

“At present, celebrations of the so-called victory in the election campaign are taking place near this place.  Neither the law of our state, nor the laws of justice, which were grossly violated by the current administration, both throughout the course of the past five years and during the past elections, allow us to name what happens there as inauguration, ”he said  .

 The meeting was addressed by Deputy Raul Lolua, leader of the United Abkhazia party Sergey Shamba and chairman of the Women in Politics political group Irina Agrba.

 What will be the next steps of the opposition – it was not announced at the congress.

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 On September 8, in the second round of the presidential election, Raul Khajimba won 39,793 (47.39 percent), and Alhas Kvitsinia 38,766 voters (46.17 percent).

Another 3,155 voters voted against both candidates.

On September 20, the Supreme Court rejected the administrative claim of Alkhas Kvitsinia on invalidating the decision of the Central Election Commission of Abkhazia on the results of the presidential election.

On October 7, the Supreme Court received a cassation appeal from a representative of Alkhas Kvitsinia with a request to cancel the decision of the Supreme Court of September 20.  The cassation appeal must be considered within two months from the moment of receipt of the cassation instance in the court.