Snap election

Abkahzia went to the polls Friday in its fifth presidential election since throwing off Georgian rule in the early 1990s.

The disputed political entity of Abkhazia remains largely unrecognized on the international stage, with merely Russia and a handful of other states recognizing its independence. Georgia says the vote in it's breakaway province is illegitimate.

All three candidates share pro-Kremlin sympathies and an anti-Georgian stance. Vice President Alexander Ankvab is running against Prime Minister Sergei Shamba and opposition leader Paul Khadjimba. There are few reliable polls, but analysts expect the outcome to be a close call.

"It is a very small society," said Liana Kvarchelia, a member of the League of Fair Voters and director of Center for Humanitarian Protection in Abkhazia.

"[The candidates] are people we know, who are either our classmates, our neighbors, our relatives, and it's very hard in a small society not to be transparent, not to be accountable, because you will be confronted with difficult questions from all these people who know you."

Kvarchelia admits there are shortfalls in other institutions like the judiciary and legal system, but she believes electoral democracy has reached an important level.

No Kremlin meddling

In the 2004 presidential elections, Moscow openly backed Raul Khadjimba who then lost the vote to Sergei Bagapsh. Bagapsh died in a Moscow hospital after receiving lung surgery earlier this year, leading to the snap vote.

In this election, Russia has maintained a hands-off approach. Each candidate has sought to define Abkhazia's strategic relationship with Russia and is defiant of reintegration with Georgia.

"Of course, in regards to strategic questions and in questions regarding the development of the Abkhazian state, the development of the economy and social sphere, the program of each candidate is very similar," explained Ankvab.

"There is no conflict of interest. Each [candidate] seeks to serve the interest of Abkhazia and the Abkhazian state."

No international recognition

The election takes place three years to the day that Moscow recognized the sub-tropical state on the Black Sea coast between Russia and Georgia.

Russia's recognition of Abkhazia - along with Georgia's other breakaway province of South Ossetia - came after a brief Russian-Georgian war in which Moscow defeated a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in August 2008.

The majority of the world community still considers Abkhazia a part of Georgia.

The small republic of just over 200,000 people remains largely dependant on Moscow, with thousands of Russian troops stationed in there.

Despite Russian tourists and the Kremlin's budgetary support the country's economy remains stricken by the lack of international recognition.

Author: Andreas Illmer, Paul Rimple (AP, AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler