CEC of Abkhazia finds no violations in facts listed in Khadzimba's complaint

In the context of the complaint submitted by the candidate for the President of Abkhazia Raul Khadzhimba, Batal Tabagua, Chairman of Central Electoral Commission (CEC), made an official statement, running that there are no grounds to state that administrative resource are used during the elections.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 19 Raul Khadzhimba lodged a complaint to the CEC Chairman, drawing his attention to the fact that the citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia, who work in various governmental entities and in state-run enterprises are forced to give x-copies of their passports. In the opinion of the candidate, it is a fact of illegal use of administrative resources by the ruling power and psychological pressure on voters; it can also be used for further falsification of election outcomes.

According to Mr Tabagua, "in spite of the fact that Khadzimba's complaint had not a single particular fact of taking citizens' passport copies, at the press conference at the Association of Media Workers (on November 20), the candidate mentioned the Sukhumi city clinical hospital as an example of the entity, where passport copies were taken."

According to the Ministry of Public Health of Abkhazia, this data was gathered not only at the Sukhumi city clinical hospital, but also in other treatment-and-prophylactic establishments.

"In none of these cases there are grounds to state that administrative resources were used during the elections, since this has nothing to do with the election campaign," said Batal Tabagua.

Other oppositional candidates have also lodged their complaints and application to the CEC.

In particular, in one of the complaints oppositional candidates report that on November 23 in the city of Gagra employees of the administration of the Gagra District purposefully destroyed the agitation materials of the candidates for the President Zaur Ardzinba, Raul Khadzhimba and Beslan Butba.

The candidates from the opposition also complain that every day the Abkhazian Television shows reports from meetings with participation of official of the executive power of Abkhazia, which is, in their opinion, direct propaganda for Sergey Bagapsh, incumbent President of Abkhazia and a candidate, and use of administrative resources.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that five candidates run for the post of the state leaser at the presidential election to take place on December 12.