'Fantastic math' - on dubious victory of authorities in Abkhazia’s municipal elections
Municipal elections in Abkhazia
In Abkhazia, local self-government elections were held on November 9 amid numerous scandals.
While no one has formally challenged the results, opinions in the media and society are sharply divided over whether the current authorities can claim the outcome as a success.
The elections have been officially recognized as valid. The highest voter turnout was recorded in the Tkuarchal district, where 46% of eligible voters cast their ballots. In other districts, participation was even lower.
It means that more than half of the voters completely ignored the elections.
A total of 161 deputies were elected to city and district councils. More than 280 candidates competed for these seats — about one-third representing political parties, with the rest running as independents.
Some of the independents were initially united under the “Team Abkhazia” group, which received active support from the authorities. However, just days before the elections, a scandal erupted.
A group of activists led by opposition MP Kan Kvarchiya detained three Russian citizens who had been secretly – and illegally – working for the pro-presidential group “Team Abkhazia.”
The “consultants” were identified as Ivan Reva, Pavel Timofeev, and Dmitry Budykin.
Answering persistent questions from opposition representatives, Ivan Reva admitted that he is actually the editor of Abkhaz Bulletin and the author of its publications. He also revealed that he had hired people and paid them to tear down the campaign posters of opponents of the “Abkhazia Team.”
Activists confiscated gadgets from the Russians, and some of the material stored on them was later leaked online. The published information is essentially a factual report by political technologists on the work they had done.
Authorities tried to cover up the scandal. After activists handed the Russians over to the state security service, they were deported to Russia the following day.
The head of the Sukhum election commission, Almas Jopua, responding to opposition demands to disqualify candidates from the “Abkhazia Team” group, said there were no grounds for this, as there is no legally registered organization called the “Abkhazia Team.”
Despite the scandal, no candidates were removed from the elections. However, the voting itself took place in a calm atmosphere.
Commenting on the election results, pro-government media claim that pro-government candidates won 76% of the parliamentary seats.
These reports are published by anonymous Telegram channels which, according to not only opposition figures but also some supporters of the authorities, are run by Russian political technologists.
The opposition strongly disagrees. They point, for example, to the election results in Pitsunda, where candidates from the ruling party did not win a single seat in the local council.
Commentary
The opposition Telegram channel Respublika gave the following assessment of the elections:
“Pro-government Telegram mouthpieces are reporting a ‘76% victory.’ This genre seems to be becoming a classic in Abkhazia.
It is remembered that not long ago, then-president Aslan Bzhania claimed the same about parliament—and everyone remembers how that ended. (Bzhania was ousted, and early presidential elections were held – JAMnews).
The fact that history teaches no one any lessons – fine, we get it. But what happened to mathematics?
76% of deputies equals 122 people. But according to your own information, there were just over 60 candidates from the so-called ‘pro-government’ organizations, and more than half of them failed. This was especially obvious in the Gudauta district and Pitsunda.
So how did you end up counting 122 people? Did you multiply each by three?
And the funniest part is that many of those you hastily listed as part of the ‘Abkhazia Team’ have nothing to do with you. It will soon become clear – when the chairpersons of councils and district heads are elected. That’s when reality will begin.
We understand that guest workers (Russian political strategists – JAMnews) need to report to their superiors on the millions spent. But not to the extent of turning arithmetic into political fantasy.”
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