The Central Election Commission of the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia has
registered
five candidates who applied to run in the presidential election on
December 12. A sixth would-be candidate, Djamalik Ayba, withdrew his
application before the November 2 deadline.
The five are
incumbent President Sergei Bagapsh; his former vice president and
closest challenger in the 2004 presidential ballot, Raul Khadjimba;
businessman and Economic Development Party of Abkhazia Chairman Beslan
Butba; academic Vitaly Bganba; and Zaur Ardzinba, director of the State
Steamship Company. All five have successfully submitted to tests
intended to assess their fluency in the Abkhaz language.
Central
Election Commission Chairman Batal Tabagua told local officials on
November 6 that all candidates are entitled to four hours' free airtime
on state television. He said they must devote a minimum of one hour to
answering viewers' questions, and that their designated
vice-presidential running mates must likewise make themselves available
to answer questions from voters.
The issues at stake 15 months
after Russia formally recognized Abkhazia as an independent state are
closely interrelated: the optimum level of cooperation with, and
maximum acceptable level of economic and security dependence on, the
Russian Federation; how best to develop the republic's economy without
inflicting irreversible environmental damage; and continuing to build a
genuine and democratic civil society.
Relations with Georgia are
not an issue, especially after Avtandil Demetrashvili, chairman of the
commission tasked with drafting amendments to the Georgian
Constitution, went
on record
in September as saying that Georgia will remain a unitary state in
which regions would enjoy varying degrees of autonomy depending on the
size of the population. That approach would theoretically give Abkhazia
less say in running its domestic affairs than the city of Tbilisi,
which has a population of 1.5 million.
Most observers anticipate
a fierce competition between Bagapsh, Khadjimba, and Butba that may
well necessitate a second-round runoff. Bagapsh projects confidence
that the modest economic upswing of the past five years, coupled with
the formal recognition of Abkhazia by Russia, more than outweigh the
accusations leveled against him by opposition parties of making too
many unwarranted concessions to Russia, and by NGOS of political
pressure on opposition politicians and journalists and of turning a
blind eye to top-level corruption.
Khadjimba stepped down as vice president in May,
accusing Bagapsh
of having done nothing over the previous four years to reform local
government or increase the effectiveness of the law enforcement
agencies, and of blocking initiatives and proposals by his subordinates.
And in July, Khadjimba played a leading role in the opposition campaign that forced the parliament to annul
controversial amendments
to the law on citizenship that would have made it easier for Georgians
who returned to Abkhazia's southernmost Gali Raion to vote in the
December election.
Khadjimba's support base encompasses veterans
of the 1992-93 war with Georgia, some members of the Soviet-era
political elite, and the more radical opposition groups. It is
conceivable that he also enjoys political backing from Moscow --
then-Russian President Vladimir Putin unequivocally endorsed him
against Bagapsh five years ago -- but
kavkaz-uzel.ru
on November 1 quoted political commentator Maria Platonova as saying
that there are no signs yet that the Russian leadership plans to try to
influence the outcome of the vote.
Like Khadjimba, the more
moderate Butba too has accused the present leadership of incompetence
and corruption. On October 23, Butba told the congress of his party
that proposed him as a presidential candidate that Abkhazia still does
not have a truly independent judiciary that is not afraid to bring
corrupt officials to trial, and that if he is elected, the fight
against corruption will be his No.1 priority. He further
pledged
economic incentives to reverse the declining birthrate and to support
small business, and a five-year program to raise employment and living
standards in rural areas, which unlike the capital, Sukhumi, have not
benefitted from the influx of foreign investment.
In light of
the similarity between their respective programs, some observers had
anticipated that Khadjimba and Butba might run as a team. But according
to the Russian daily "
Kommersant,"
relations between the two men soured some months ago after preliminary
talks. Whether that rift was the result of a political disagreement, or
Khadjimba's abrasive personality, is not clear.
A subsequent
attempt by Khadjimba to team up with Ardzinba, who reportedly enjoys
solid backing from some members of the business community, also came to
nothing.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Five_Presidential_Candidates_Registered_In_Abkhazia/1872025.html
