Breakaway Abkhazia Holds Referendum

Polling stations opened in breakaway Abkhazia on Sunday for a referendum to decide whether to call an early presidential election, but it appears to be heading to being declared invalid because of low voter turnout.

Just under 1% of about total of 133,000 eligible voters turned out as of 6pm local time, two hours before the closure of polling stations, chairman of the breakaway region’s central election commission, Batal Tabagua, said, according to the official Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress.

More than half of the voters should participate in order for the referendum to be valid.

Opposition groups, which were demanding the referendum to be postponed for autumn, announced boycott on the eve of the vote.

Abkhaz leader Raul Khajimba signed on June 1 a decree to hold the referendum, less than three months after opposition filed a petition with the central election commission requesting calling of such a referendum.

But on July 5 supporters and members of opposition Amtsakhara party gathered at an outdoor rally and demanded from the authorities to postpone the referendum, claiming that they had no enough time for campaign; the opposition also complained about having no access to the state television to bring their message to voters.

The protest rally grew into scuffles with the police after several hundred demonstrators tried to storm the Interior Ministry building in Sokhumi on July 5; more than a dozen of people were injured. The authorities had to meet some of the opposition’s demands – the Interior Minister was suspended from office and voters with expired passports allowed to cast ballot, but the Abkhaz leader rejected to postpone the referendum.

Opposition party, Amtsakhara, said in a statement on July 9 that Khajimba’s goal was to effectively thwart the referendum by not giving the opposition enough time to campaign in favor of the early presidential election and to then “portray it as opposition’s failure.”

“It will lead to even more wave of public protest,” said the opposition party said, which announced the boycott of the referendum. “The state has not created conditions for free expression of voters’ will… We will not recognize results of this referendum.”