Abkhaz opposition says ready for negotiations with president

The Abkhaz opposition, which continues to rally in front of the presidential administration building, is ready for negotiations with Abkhaz President Raul Khajimba, opposition leader Aslan Bzhania told TASS on Friday, adding that so far, there has been no corresponding offer from the president.

"The situation must be stabilized, we must do it through legal channels. We are facing a political crisis. <…> The only way, the legal way is to hold a new [presidential] election," he stressed.

"I am one of those who thinks that the presidential run-off did not make the winner clear," the opposition leader added, noting that tensions in Abkhazia could have been avoided if another round of elections had been held.

Earlier, the Abkhaz presidential administration told TASS that Khajimba addressed the protesters with an offer to negotiate; however, he received no response.

Abkhazia’s opposition was going to hold a demonstration in Sukhum on Thursday to protest the outcome of last September’s presidential election. Originally, the demonstrators had planned to rally in front of the court building, where Abkhazia’s Supreme Court resumed hearings on a lawsuit filed by the opposition’s presidential candidate Alkhas Kvitsiania, from the Amtsakhara party, to protest a lower court’s ruling declaring the election valid.

In a parallel development, another crowd consisting of several hundred people gathered in front of the presidential staff building. They flocked there over a suspect linked to a triple murder in November 2019, who is allegedly one of the Abkhazian president’s bodyguards. The rally’s organizer, Akhra Avidzba, is a relative of one of those killed. Later in the day, opposition demonstrators moved to the building of the presidential staff. The crowd demanded the resignation of President Raul Khajimba and forced their way through, storming the premises.