Politics of Abkhazia

Politics in Abkhazia is dominated by the conflict with Georgia, of which the territory became "de facto" independent but remains a "de jure" part of Georgia. Politics of separatist Abkhazia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, wherein the President of Abkhazia is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament.

Institutions of the Republic of Abkhazia

Latest de facto separatist presidential election

On 3 October 2004 presidential elections were held in Abkhazia. In the elections, Russia evidently supported Raul Khajimba, the prime-minister backed by seriously ailing outgoing separatist President Vladislav Ardzinba. Posters of Russia's President Vladimir Putin together with Khajimba, who like Putin had worked as a KGB official, were everywhere in Sukhumi. Deputies of Russia's parliament and Russian singers, lead by Joseph Kobzon, both a deputy and a popular songster, came to Abkhazia campaigning for Khajimba.

Still, on 12 October Abkhazia's Supreme Court, after a series of contradictory decisions by the Electoral Committee, recognized that the new president would be a businessman Sergei Bagapsh, accused by his rival's supporters of being pro-Georgian. (Georgia doesn't recognize any separatist candidates or even the elections). Abkhazia's outgoing President Ardzinba claimed the decision was illegal and made under pressure from supporters of Bagapsh. The decision was cancelled by the Supreme Court the night of the same day. When supporters of Raul Khajimba seized the building of the Supreme Court and destroyed the protocols from local electoral constituencies new elections were prescribed.

Soon the Supreme Court cancelled the later decision, and again named Bagapsh the new president. His supporters captured a local TV station, while Raul Khajimba's supporters took control over the parliament's building. Outgoing president Ardzinba replaced Raul Khajimba as a prime-minister with Nodar Khashba, who, before this appointment served in the Ministry for Extraordinary Situations.

On 5 December the presidential candidates Sergei Bagapsh and Raul Khadjimba agreed to hold new elections. In these elections they would run on a joint ticket, with Khadjimba as vice presidential candidate.

These elections were not recognized by any State and International Organizations.

Executive branch of the de facto separatist government

!align=left|Chief of State: President
Sergei Bagapsh
Amtsakhara
12 February 2005
-
Vice President
Raul Khadjimba|
12 February 2005
-!align=left|Head of Government: Prime Minister
Alexander Ankvab
Revival
14 February 2005
-
Vice Prime Minister
Alexandr Stranichkin||
-
Vice Prime Minister / Minister of Defence
Mirab Kishmaria|
May, 2007
-
Vice Prime Minister / Minister of Finance
Beslan Kubrava|
24 February 2005 [ [http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/president/activities/decree/detail.php?ID=1545&phrase_id=31531 Указ Президента Абхазии №12 от 24.02.2005. О Назначении Вице-премьером, министром финансов Республики Абхазия Кубрава Беслана Сергеевича] ]
-
Minister of Agriculture and Food
Vitali Smyr|
25 February 2005 [ [http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/president/activities/decree/detail.php?ID=1642&phrase_id=31533 Указ Президента Абхазии №24 от 25.02.2005. О назначении Смыр В.К. министром сельского хозяйства Республики Абхазия] ]
-
Minister of Economy
Kristina Ozgan [ [http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/president/activities/decree/detail.php?ID=1635&phrase_id=31536 Указ Президента Абхазии №22 от 25.02.2005. О назначении Озган К.К. Министром экономики Республики Абхазия ] ] ||
-
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sergey Shamba|
15 December 2004
-
Minister of Health
Zurab Marshaniya||
-
Minister of Internal Affairs
Otar Khetsiya [ [http://www.abkhaziagov.org/ru/president/activities/decree/detail.php?ID=1633&phrase_id=31537 Указ Президента Абхазии №21 от 25.02.2005. О назначении Хеция О.М. Министром внутренних дел Республики Абхазия] ] ||
-
Minister of Justice
Ludmila Khodzhashvili||
-
Minister for Taxes and Charges
Vakhtang Pipia||
-

Legislative branch

The People's Assembly has 35 members, elected for a five year term in single seat constituencies.

Political parties and elections

Politics Abkhazian Autonomous Republic in exile

The "de jure" Government of Abkhazia in exile, then-the Council of Ministers of Abkhazia, left Abkhazia after the Russian Federation|Russian-backed Abkhaz separatist forces and their allies from the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus took control of the region’s capital Sukhumi after a heavy fighting on September 27 1993, leading to the mass killings of ethnic Georgians and loyal citizens, in which several members of the Abkhazian government, including its chairman Zhiuli Shartava, were executed by the rebels. The Council of Ministers relocated to Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, where it operated as a de jure government of Abkhazia for almost 13 years. During this period, the GAIE, was led by Tamaz Nadareishvili, until a new chairman, Irakli Alasania, was appointed by President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, his envoy in the peace talks over Abkhazia.

On July 27 2006, the Georgian authorities have decided to establish Tbilisi-based Abkhazian government-in-exile in Upper Abkhazia, which represents almost 17% of breakaway Abkhazia. "This decision means that for the first time since 1993 the government enters into the middles of Abkhazia, of our Abkhazia, to exercise Georgian jurisdiction and the Georgian constitutional order. This is very important fact and very fundamental political event," Saakashvili said in his televised address to the nation. [ [http://207.44.135.100/eng/article.php?id=13197 Tbilisi-Based Abkhaz Government Moves to Kodori] , "Civil Georgia", July 27 2006. URL accessed on 2007-07-28.]

Malkhaz Akishbaia, a western educated Abkhaz politician was elected in April 2006 and is the current head of the De-jure Government of Abkhazia.

This Government was forced out of the region of Abkhazia during the 2008 South Ossetia War.

Executive branch of de jure Government

!align=left|Chairman of the Supreme Council
Temur Mzhavia
Abkhazeti
June 2006
-
Chairman of Cabinet of Ministers
Malkhaz Akishbaia
Abkhazeti
June 2006
-
Deputy of Supreme Council
Ada Marshania
Abkhazeti
June 2006

Council of Ministers of Abkhazia in exile

Ethnic Abkhaz and Georgian deputies elected to the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet under the unsuccessful 1991 power-sharing arrangement continue to operate from Tbilisi and Kodori as de jure government and parliament-in-exile. They began boycotting the Abkhaz parliament in May 1992, complaining of Abkhaz discrimination, and in June commenced a campaign of civil disobedience while attempting to set up parallel power structures in Sukhumi. In October 1992 elections to the Georgian parliament were conducted in those parts of Abkhazia controlled by central Government. However, with Abkhazia outside Tbilisi’s jurisdiction by the time of the 1995 Georgian parliamentary election the MPs elected from Abkhazia in 1992 automatically retained their seats in the Georgian parliament. After separatist victory, the de jure Government represented 300,000 IDPs in Tbilisi. There were two significant political groups of Abkhaz IDPs. In April 1999 Tamaz Nadareishvili, chairman of the government-in-exile and at the outbreak of the war Deputy Chairman of the parliament of the Abkhaz Autonomous Republic, founded the Abkhazia Liberation Party (ALP) to contest the October 1999 Georgian parliamentary elections. Formerly a Communist Party functionary in Abkhazia, he was Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia 1993–95. The ALP was the successor to My Home Abkhazia, a party he founded to contest the 1995 parliamentary election but which failed to gain parliamentary representation. However, the ALP is opposed by the Co-ordinating Council of Refugees from Abkhazia founded in 1996 by Boris Kakubava, an MP in the Abkhazeti faction. The Council was represented by the League of Popular Representatives of Georgia political party. Kakubava strongly opposes Shevardnadze who he blames for the loss of Abkhazia.

Abkhazia today

The Abkhaz conflict has not been resolved; a ceasefire agreement was signed on 15 May 1994 and a United Nations peacekeeping force (UNOMIG) was given the task of monitoring the agreement. A separate force from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was assigned to a peacekeeping mission.

Peace talks have taken place on and off over the last ten years, but have achieved little of significance. Although there have been no major outbreaks of fighting in the meantime, border clashes and armed raids by both sides continue to inflict casualties.

A new constitution was adopted, on 4 November 1994, which declared Abkhaz sovereignty. Parliamentary elections were held on 23 November 1996, but these were not recognised by the Georgian government or the international community, as the elections were held after ethnic cleansing when majority of pre-war population had fled Abkhazia. The CIS imposed economic sanctions in January 1996 and the region is formally blockaded by both Georgia and Russia.

The "de facto" authorities organized a referendum on October 3 1999 which approved the current constitution though more than half of the pre-war population expelled from Abkhazia did not take part in voting.

On 3 October 2004, presidential elections were held in Abkhazia. In the elections, Russia evidently supported then-Prime Minister Raul Khadjimba, also backed by seriously ailing outgoing separatist President Vladislav Ardzinba. Posters of Russia's President Vladimir Putin together with Khadjimba, who like Putin had worked as a KGB official, were everywhere in Sukhumi. Deputies of Russia's parliament and Russian singers, led by Joseph Kobzon, both a deputy and a popular songster, came to Abkhazia campaigning for Khadjimba.

Still, on 12 October, Abkhazia's Supreme Court, after a series of contradictory decisions by the Electoral Committee, recognized that the new president would be businessman Sergei Bagapsh, accused by his rival's supporters of being pro-Georgian. Abkhazia's outgoing President Ardzinba claimed the decision was illegal and made under pressure from supporters of Bagapsh. The decision was cancelled by the Supreme Court that night. When supporters of Raul Khadjimba seized the building of the Supreme Court and destroyed the protocols from local electoral constituencies, new elections were prescribed.

Soon, the Supreme Court cancelled the later decision, and again named Bagapsh the new president. His supporters captured a local TV station, while Khadjimba's supporters took control over the parliament's building. Outgoing President Ardzinba replaced Khadjimba as prime minister with Nodar Khashba, who before this appointment served in the Ministry of Extraordinary Situations of Russia.

On 12 November, supporters of Bagapsh, who was planning to be inaugurated on 7 December, took the building of Abkhazia's administration, making Nodar Khashba flee from his room. Capturing the major governmental offices in Sukhumi led to the death of one elderly woman, Tamara Shakryl. (Bagapsh's supporters claim she was killed by Ardzinba's guard.) The same day, Russia made it clear that it would directly intervene in Abkhazian developments in case of threats to its interests in this unrecognized republic, and blamed Bagapsh for the disorders.

In response, Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it "calls upon the Group of Friends of the UN Secretary General and the international community to give the proper reaction to such Russian declarations, to reiterate their support to Georgia's full sovereignty and territorial integrity and to warn Russia to abstain from any interference in Georgia's internal affairs."

In response to Georgia's accusations that Russia was sending its troops to Sukhumi, Russian lieutenant colonel Yevgeni Morenko, head of the Collective Peacemaking Forces in the region, told journalists on 12 November that only two armored troop-carriers were sent to Abkhazia's capital, "for better protection of the Peacemaking Headquarters".

On 14 November, Prime Minister Nodar Khashba, named by the relatives of Tamara Shakryl as responsible for her death and threatened by them, had to spend the night at Russia's Peacemaking Headquarters in Sukhumi. Tensions continued to mount as the day for Bagapsh's inaugural ceremony came. In early December 2004, however, Bagapsh came to an agreement with Khadjimba under which they would run in new elections under a national unity ticket, with Bagapsh as presidential candidate and Khadjimba as vice-presidential candidate. The ticket won the elections with over 90% of the vote, and the new administration took office on 12 February 2005.

Abkhazia's future

Abkhazian leaders have made alternating demands in recent years. At times, they have insisted on full independence, and at other times, they have requested associate membership in the Russian Federation. However, the Russian government has been slow to respond to the latter proposal, fearing the negative effect of such an action on its relations with Georgia. On 28 November 2003, Russian MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky tabled such a resolution in the State Duma, but saw it rejected. Nonetheless, most citizens of Abkhazia now possess Russian citizenship, and Abkhazians, unlike Georgians entering Russia, do not require a visa.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, European Union and United Nations have continued to insist that Abkhazia must remain part of Georgia, and that at the very least, the many Georgian refugees who fled after the 1992-1993 war must be allowed to return, before any acceptable vote on independence can be held.

The Georgian government has continued to insist on Abkhazia's reunification with Georgia, but has differed in its suggestions of means to achieve this, particularly under the government of current President Mikhail Saakashvili.

They have, at times, proposed two main peace deals. The first one would divide Georgia into seven autonomous entities, each with power over police and economic issues, but relinquishing power over defense and foreign affairs to the federal government. In a later proposal, it was suggested that Georgia and Abkhazia could form one federal Georgian republic, somewhat along the lines of Serbia and Montenegro.

The Georgian government has, at times, suggested that they may attempt to resolve the conflict by military means. After the 2004 removal of Ajarian leader Aslan Abashidze from office after large public protests, Saakashvili suggested that Abkhazia and fellow separatist entity South Ossetia could be reintegrated in the same manner. However, over the following months, he distanced himself from this idea.

Saakashvili has also attempted to portray the Abkhaz dispute as being between Georgia and Russia, owing to the latter's support of the separatists, with the separatist government being portrayed as little more than a Russian puppet. To this end, they have pushed for either the complete removal of, or major changes to the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers, and the removal of Russian military bases from Abkhaz territory. During 2003, they succeeded in achieving the latter demand, with Russia removing its bases, leaving only its peacekeeping force.

Both the Abkhaz de facto separatist government and separatist opposition parties (Amtsakhara) resolutely oppose reunification with Georgia under any circumstances.

References

External links

* [http://www.abkhaziagov.org/en/ President of the Republic of Abkhazia. Official site]