Abkhazia Holds Local Elections

Breakaway Abkhazia is holding local self-governance elections on February 11, as 268 candidates compete for 169 seats in the local councils.

Local councils are elected for four-year terms. The first local elections in the unrecognized republic were held in 1998. The president of the breakaway region will appoint the heads of towns and districts from members of the newly elected local councils.

The Interior Ministry of the breakaway region said on February 10 that it has boosted security measures on the eve of elections, especially in the Georgian-populated Gali District, to prevent ?acts of provocation.?

The Abkhaz leader?s representative to the Gali District, Ruslan Kishmaria, said that the situation was ?calm and stable? in Gali on Sunday and added that the ethnic Georgian population of Gali is participating in the elections.

But Georgian media sources reported Sunday that the locals in Gali are boycotting elections.

Leaflets calling on the local Georgian population of Gali to boycott the elections were disseminated in the villages of the district on the eve of elections. Authorities in Sokhumi described the move as part of Tbilisi?s attempts to thwart elections in Gali.

Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh visited several villages of the Gali District on election day, Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress reported.

?Gali is a primordial territory of Abkhazia that will get the heightened attention of the Abkhaz authorities,? Apsnipress quoted Bagapsh as saying in Gali.

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