Pro-Russian politician Badra Gunba has been declared winner of runoff presidential elections in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, officials said Sunday, amid tensions over Moscow’s influence.
Abkhazia is recognized by most of the world as Georgian territory, but it has been under de facto Russian control since a brief 2008 war between Moscow and Tbilisi.
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Gunba won 54.73% of the vote in the second round, while opposition leader Adgur Ardzinba garnered 41.54%, Dmitry Marshan, chair of the separatist region’s election commission, told reporters.
No candidate won a majority in the first round on Feb. 15, forcing a runoff.
The region has been gripped by tension since November, when protesters ousted pro-Kremlin president Aslan Bzhania over a Russian investment bill that critics argued would lead to uncontrolled development in the lush Black Sea region.
He was the third Abkhazian leader to resign due to protests since 2014.
Gunba was vice president and acting leader, while Ardzinba is a former economy minister aligned with the protesters while still backing ties with Russia.
Gunba traveled to Moscow for meetings with Russian officials including top diplomat Sergey Lavrov days before the first round, in what Ardzinba’s camp cast as unfair competition.
The second round, held Saturday, was briefly disrupted after masked attackers stormed a polling station in a northwestern town and threatened election officials.
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Russia’s Investigative Committee said Saturday it was probing “attacks on Russian citizens” during the voting.
Abkhaz separatists expelled tens of thousands of Georgians from the region during and after a war spurred by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
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