Bribing voters with bags of flour? Abkhazia prepares for parliamentary elections
“Flour elections” in Abkhazia
In Abkhazia, new parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 12, 2022 and they have already received their own name. They are nicknamed “flour elections” – since from the beginning of the election campaign, the authorities began to distribute bags of flour to the population, calling it humanitarian aid.
Representatives of the opposition veteran organization Aruaa left a sack of flour at the entrance to the Central Election Commission on the day the election campaign for the People’s Assembly began.
A sheet of paper was attached to it, with an inscription: “No to bribery!”.
The opposition considers the distribution of humanitarian aid of flour in all regions of Abkhazia during the election period as open bribery of voters.
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The chairman of the Central Election Commission, Dmitry Marshania, did not accept reproaches addressed to him and said that, in accordance with the constitution, the Central Election Commission is monitoring the implementation of the law on elections. “The establishment of the fact of bribery is not within the competence of the CEC, this should be done by law enforcement agencies”, Marshania said.
3,000 tons of wheat grain were donated by the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratyev as humanitarian aid to Abkhazia. He announced this intention at a meeting with President Aslan Bzhania back in April 2021.
The donated grain was subsequently processed into flour, and from December 2021 it began to be delivered in batches to Abkhazia.
