Abkhazia: More Than 1000 Opposition Supporters Storm Presidential Palace

09 January 2020 16:10

The main demand of the opposition is to recognize the presidential elections held in September 2019 as illegitimate and announced new ones.

Editor's Note: The following is an article by Hromadske’s partner JAM News with slight amendments according to Hromadske International's style.

About 1,000 opposition supporters stormed the presidential palace in the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia in Georgia early on January 9, knocking the doors off the side of the building and breaking through.

Several physical altercations took place, however, reports say the president is not in the building.

The main demand of the opposition is to recognize the results of the September 8 presidential election when Raul Khajimba was re-elected as illegitimate.

The main argument of the opposition is that despite the fact that Khajimba scored more votes than his opponent in the second round, he still only received 47 percent of the vote, while the law requires 50 percent + 1 of all voter

The opposition is calling for new elections. The final decision on this issue was to be taken on January 9 by the Supreme Court.

However, this meeting was the main reason for the assault on the presidential palace: the opposition demanded that the court reject the candidacy of one of the judges in the case, Roman Kvarchia, claiming that his candidacy, and that of other judges, was put forward by the president himself.

Now, within two months, a new composition of the cassation instance should be formed, after which the opposition’s claim on declaring the presidential election invalid and the calling of new elections will be reconsidered.

The opposition party Aitaira, whose leader is influential politician and former president of unrecognized Abkhazia Alexander Ankvab, called on President Raul Khajimba to resign to defuse the situation.