Presidential elections were held in Abkhazia on 12 December 2009, the fourth such elections since the post of President of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia was created in 1994. The result was a victory for incumbent president Sergei Bagapsh, who received 63% of the vote, winning a second term in office. Bagapsh competed against four opposition candidates: former vice president and prime minister Raul Khajimba, who came second behind Bagapsh in the 2004 presidential election, and newcomers Beslan Butba, Zaur Ardzinba and Vitali Bganba. Khajimba had stated that he, Ardzinba and Butba would support each other should one of them reach the second round of the election. Bagapsh was inaugurated on 12 February 2010.
Candidates Requirements and the procedure for registration According to the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic of Abkhazia, candidates for the presidency have to: possess Abkhazian citizenship; be of Abkhaz nationality; be fluent in the Abkhaz language; be no younger than 35 and no older than 65 years of age; be eligible to vote; have permanently lived in Abkhazia for the last five years up to the election day; have an account in a credit institution officially registered in Abkhazia.
Prospective candidates had to be nominated between 13 October and 2 November 2009. This could be done either by an interest group, which had to present a list of signatures, or by a political party registered with the Central Election Commission. The only parties registered in this way were United Abkhazia, the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia, the Party of the Economic Development of Abkhazia and the People's Party. After the nomination period ended on 2 November, the Central Election Commission verified the signature lists and whether candidates satisfied the set requirements. To test the nominees' proficiency in Abkhaz, it established a language commission consisting of Aleksei Kaslandzia, Batal Khagush, Eva Tania, Adgur Skinkuba and Fatima Kvarchelia. Registration of the candidates had to be completed before 12 November and two days after their registration the Central Election Commission had to publish the list of nominees whose candidacy had been approved.
Candidates Five people were nominated for the presidency. On 5 November they successfully passed the Abkhaz language examination. Bagapsh and Khajimba were exempted from it as they had already passed a similar examination during the 2004 presidential election, but they both volunteered to undergo it anyway. On 6 November, all five nominees were officially registered as candidates, and they received their certificates on 9 November.
Presidential candidateCareerVice presidential candidateCareerPolitical support Doctor of Philosophy and Economics Nominated by an interest group on 14 October.Vitali Resh-ipa BganbaDavid Dasania Vice president (2005–2009) Prime minister (2003–2004) Minister of Defence (2002–2003) Nominated by an interest group on 19 October. On 20 October received the additional support of the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia, Aruaa and Akhatsa.Raul Jumka-ipa KhajimbaVasilii Avidzba Member of the People's Assembly (2002–2007) Businessman, owner of Abaza TV and Ekho AbkhaziiMinister of the Interior (?–?) Nominated on 23 October by the Party of the Economic Development of Abkhazia, which he leads. Received the additional support of Iakub Lakoba, head of the People's Party and a candidate in the two previous presidential elections, and Vitali Bigvava, representative of the youth organisation Apsilaa. Campaign headed by Leon Ajinjal.Beslan ButbaAlmasbei Kchach President (since 2005) Chairman of Chernomorenergo (2000–2005) Prime Minister (1997–1999)Prime Minister (since 2005) Minister of the Interior (1992–1993) Businessman Nominated on 27 October by United Abkhazia. On 18 November received the additional support of the Communist Party.Sergei Uasyl-ipa BagapshAleksandr Zolotinska-ipa Ankvab Head of the Abkhazian state shipping company (since 1993) Head of the Ochamchira District (?–?) Nominated by an interest group on 29 October.Zaur ArdzinbaKhripsom Jopua
One person was nominated who subsequently withdrew his nomination:
Jamalik Aiba. Aiba was nominated by an interest group on 23 October. On 26 October the Central Election Commission reported that Aiba had withdrawn his nomination.
Political-background Bagapsh, Khajimba, the 2004 election and the power-sharing agreement Sergei Bagapsh and Raul Khajimba already competed for the presidency in the 2004 presidential election. That election was narrowly won by Bagapsh, but this was disputed by Khajimba and his supporters. To end the severe crisis that followed Bagapsh and Khajimba reached an agreement under which Bagapsh became president and Khajimba vice president. The arrangement was uneasy: Khajimba's Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia remained in opposition and Khajimba on various occasions supported the opposition's criticism of government policy.
Most recently, on 20 May 2009, the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia, the Party of the Economic Development of Abkhazia and several other opposition groupings held a press conference in which they sharply criticised the governments foreign policy. On 28 May Khajimba announced that he agreed with the criticism and that he had filed for resignation. According to some observers Khajimba was partly motivated in his decision by the need to disassociate himself from the current authorities in the run-up to the election.
Bagapsh first addressed the matter of his candidacy when during a press conference in Moscow on 18 April 2009 he announced that he would probably make use of his constitutional right to run for a second term.
Beslan Butba Beslan Butba is a prominent businessman and a former member of the People's Assembly. When he failed to retain his seat in the 2007 elections, he founded the Party of the Economic Development of Abkhazia and the private TV station Abaza TV. On 15 May 2009 Butba first announced that he planned to compete in the presidential election.
Attempts by Khajimba to form alliances with Butba and Ardzinba In the run-up to the election, various opposition politicians and organisation often jointly expressed their criticism of the government. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that during the summer of 2009 Khajimba and Butba had entered negotiations over forming an alliance, but fell out following the visit of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin to Abkhazia. Putin had met with Khajimba, but not with Butba, and Butba considered this an unfriendly act on the part of Khajimba.
During the nomination period for candidates, Khajimba then tried to form a team with Ardzinba. The alliance would have combined Ardzinba's backing by part of the business community and his financial resources with Khajimba's elector popularity. The pair said they would run together during two meetings with voters, and the idea was that they would receive the joint nomination by the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia. According to the Kommersant, in the end the pair could not agree on what positions they would get. Khajimba wanted the presidency, and offered Ardzinba to become prime minister, but this was not acceptable to the latter. The congress of the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia planned on 29 October was called off, and Ardzinba was instead nominated by an initiative group that day. Khajimba had already been nominated by an initiative group on 19 October.
Nevertheless, on 18 November Khajimba and Ardzinba announced that they would continue to coordinate their campaigns, and that they had appointed chairman of Aruaa Vadim Smyr to lead this coordination. On 20 November, Khajimba stated that he and Ardzinba had different visions on coming to power, but that he did not consider Ardzinba his opponent, and that in the case of a second round, he, Ardzinba and Butba would support each other.
Other political actors Sergei Shamba Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergei Shamba was another potential presidential candidate. Shamba had participated and come third in the 2004 election. Even though he had originally been brought into the cabinet by Khajimba over Bagapsh' preferred candidate he rejected the opposition criticism of Abkhazia's foreign policy that led Khajimba to resign.
Stanislav Lakoba In the 2004 election, Bagapsh had run with Stanislav Lakoba as vice presidential candidate. The power-sharing deal between Bagapsh and Khajimba to end the post-election crisis meant that Lakoba could no longer become vice president. Instead, after the new election on 12 January 2005, Lakoba was appointed Secretary of the Security Council on 17 February. When Khajimba resigned as vice president on 28 May 2009 he declared that within the government he had received most support by Lakoba. On 18 August Lakoba himself handed his resignation over the Abkhazian citizenship crisis. In an interview with Caucasian Knot on 3 September Lakoba stated that he would not participate in the December 2009 presidential election and he called absurd the notion that he would join the opposition. Nevertheless, in an interview with the newspaper Nuzhnaya on 17 November, Lakoba stated that as a private citizen he supported Khajimba's candidacy and he praised his work in the Security Council. On 4 December Lakoba had a statement read out on Abkhazian television in which he stressed that this was only his private opinion and that it should not be used by any of the election campaigns.
Campaign The election campaign official began when the candidates received their registration certificates on 9 November. Since Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab was a candidate for the vice presidency, he was suspended from his post on 11 November as required by law, and his tasks were taken over by First Vice Premier Leonid Lakerbaia.
The election campaign was monitored as in previous years by the League of Voters "For Fair Elections". On 26 October, it released its first report and on 5 November it gave a press conference detailing its findings. The League released a second report on 1 December and a third report on 12 December.
The Central Election Commission was headed by Batal Tabagua, first appointed by Bagapsh's predecessor Vladislav Ardzinba during the crisis following the 2004 election. In its second report, the League of Voters "For Fair Elections", generally praised the Central Election Commission, but called upon it to be more responsive to the various complaints submitted to it, and it expressed regret that the Commission had not set up its own information service and website.
Political programmes Raul Khajimba On 20 November Khajimba gave a press conference in which he talked about some of his political positions. He spoke out in favour of free press and of equal access to information sources for all journalists. He promised that if he won the election he would not prosecute journalists for their view of events. Khajimba also promised to continue to fight corruption by providing decent wages and the certainty of punishment in the event of corruption. He claimed that while still in government, he had brought to light the corruption in the Sukhumi administration that cost Mayor Astamur Adleiba and several others their position, but that similar corruption in other cities had been buried by the prosecutor.
This criticism was strongly rejected by the prosecutor's office on 30 November. It claimed that the corruption in the Sukhumi administration could only be investigated properly once Khajimba's allies O.L. Berulava and T.V. Parulua had been take of the case, and that corruption in other cities had not been ignored since misdealings in the Ochamchira district administration had also been dealt with. It furthermore criticized possibly corrupt affairs during Khajimba's own time as prime minister.