De facto court in occupied Abkhazia announces results of region’s recent ‘presidential elections’ as illegitimate

The de facto Supreme Court of the Russian-occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia announced yesterday that the so-called presidential elections in the region on September 8, 2019 were illegitimate and ruled to call for repeat “elections”.

Member of the de facto Central Election Commission Givi Gabniaa said following the court ruling, repeat “presidential elections” in the region will be held within two months.

• President Zurabishvili paying ‘close attention’ to developments in occupied Abkhazia

In the second round of the presidential election held last September, incumbent “President” Raul Khajimba received 47.39  per cent of the vote, while opposition "presidential candidate" Alkhas Kvitsinia received 46.17 per cent.

The “Supreme Court” of the occupied region started discussing the lawsuit of opposition “presidential candidate” Alkhas Kvitsinia earlier this week.

Kvitsinia claimed the results of the "presidential elections" were invalid given that per the region's “constitution”, only a candidate that receives 50 per cent of votes + 1 can be considered the victor.  

• De facto parliament in occupied Abkhazia urges de facto president to resign

Meanwhile, incumbent Khajimba’s press office announced that the ruling has been made through a violation of the legislation amid protest rallies that were underway in the region demanding Khajimba’s resignation.

Khajimba, therefore, plans to appeal the recent ruling.