Bagapsh Wants Tbilisi to Give Up ‘Hard Line Stance’
The Central Election Commission (CEC) of breakaway Abkhazia confirmed Sergey Bagapsh as the President-elect of the unrecognized republic on January 14.
According to the final vote tally, approved by the Abkhaz CEC, Sergey Bagapsh garnered 91.54% of votes, while his contender Iakub Lakoba – 4.7%. 1% of votes were cast against both of the presidential candidate.
According to the Abkhaz constitution, the inauguration of the newly elected President should be held within one month after announcement of the final election results.
The January 12 presidential elections were a re-run of disputed October 3, 2004 polls, which failed to bring a new leader to the breakaway region, owing to a two month crisis that followed the elections.
According to a powersharing agreement, which put an end to two months of post-election crisis last December, Bagapsh’s former rival Raul Khajimba will take over the Vice-President’s position. As Sergey Bagapsh said on January 13, the Vice-President will “coordinate” Abkhazia’s defense, security and foreign policy.
On January 13, Sergey Bagapsh also nominated his close ally Aleksander Ankvab as the Prime Minister. Ankvab is the leader of the influential political party Aitaira and also is widely known to be an outspoken critic of outgoing Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba and his close circle.
Sergey Bagapsh also said, on January 13, that he intends “to form a cabinet of national unity” in Abkhazia.
The new leader of the unrecognized Abkhaz Republic, who will replace ailing Vladislav Ardzinba, who has been the President of Abkhazia for the past decade, advocates closer ties with Moscow.
On January 14, RIA Novosti reported quoting Sergey Bagapsh as saying that Abkhazia’s priority will be a “deepening of the integration process with the Russia Federation, as well as boosting Russian investments [in Abkhazia] and an open-border policy [with Russia].”
He also said that the Abkhaz laws “should be linked with Russian [laws].” “Abkhaz laws should be similar to Russian [ones],” he added.
Bagapsh also expressed a readiness to hold peace talks with the Georgian side, but added, “these talks should be negotiations between the two partners with equal rights.”
“If Tbilisi offers serious proposals over conflict resolution, we will consider them. But if Tbilisi keeps a hard line stance, it will not foster dialogue,” Sergey Bagapsh said.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said this week that he will unveil Tbilisi’s official proposals over a settlement of the Abkhaz conflict settlement sometime in January.
On January 13, Saakashvili condemned the Abkhaz elections as illegitimate. “The elections in Abkhazia can be considered legal only when both ethnic Abkhazians and [displaced] Georgians participate in them.”
