Saakashvili: Abkhazian Elections Illegitimate
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili condemned the ongoing presidential elections in the unrecognized Abkhazian Republic as illegitimate, saying that hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons from Abkhazia are deprived of their right to cast a ballot.
?I don?t think anybody in the world can accept the situation of ethnic cleansing, when people were forced out of their houses and many of them killed. And having elections without these people can not be considered legitimate,? Mikheil Saakashvili said in an interview with BBC News on October 3.
Meanwhile, a high voter turnout is reported in Abkhazia, which elects its first new leader after the 11-year presidency of Vladislav Ardzinba, who led the province to de facto independence after a bloody conflict with the Georgian side in 1992-93.
Five candidates are running for the five-year presidential term. The Abkhaz Central Election Commission reported that up to 35% of around 120,000 eligible voters cast their ballots by the midday on October 3. More than a half of the voters must cast a vote to validate the elections.
