The presidential campaign of 2011 was very important for Abkhazia. These were the first pre-term elections in the history of the republic. President Bagapsh solved the problem of Vice President Raul Khadjibma’s obstruction over a year ago. Khadjimba, who served as vice president under Bagapsh, was initially against his candidacy in
previous presidential elections. That is why, being a deputy head of the country, Khadjimba restricted Bagapsh’s power. Only a year ago Bagapsh found a way out. This year elections proved that the population still trusts Bagaph’s team, the team in which Alexander Ankvab was always the second leader.
The results may seem quite predictable. The winner is the vice president, who has all the power needed to secure his victory, the candidate supported by the ruling parties – ‘United Abkhazia’ and ‘Amtsakhara.’ Still, a lot of experts believed that Sergey Shamba and Raul Khadjibla both had a good chance of winning the campaign. Only the wisest political analysts were certain that Ankvab would win the race.
Most experts thought that all three candidates were respectable and well-experienced politicians, and so all had similar chances of winning the campaign. They said that Ankvab and Shamba, being the incumbent officials, would probably defeat Khadjimba in the first round and compete with each other in the second.
Unfortunately, political analysts paid almost no attention to the actual programs of the candidates. If they had, they would only have become acquainted with their official platforms without analyzing each candidate’s background.
So why did Ankvab win the campaign? The answer is that he is a former member of the law-enforcement agencies; he reassured the population that his course is to maintain law, order and stability and encourage development. It’s very important that he didn’t call for his supporters to start protests in the case of losing the race, as Khadjimba and Shamba both did.
In general the presidential elections have shown that Abkhazia is a free democratic country, in which the president is elected by the majority of voters, in which the candidates' positions in former administrations and power plays a less important role than their programs.
Spartak Zhidkov, Sukhumi. Exclusively to VK
