Abkhaz head to 2nd round of voting as 13 seats filled

SUKHUMI, Georgia - Agence France-Presse

Less than half of the legislature seats were filled March 11 following parliamentary elections in Georgia’s breakaway Black Sea region of Abkhazia, authorities said.

According to the rebel statelet’s Central Election Commission, 13 candidates won seats in the local parliament as the result of March 10’s election in which nearly 150 candidates stood for 35 seats. The second round of voting covering 22 election districts will take place March 24. Parliament is elected for a five-year term and currently dominated by the governing United Abkhazia party.

The election commission put the turnout at 44.5 percent. The polls in the region of some 240,000 people are unlikely to change Abkhazia’s pro-Russian orientation or herald any shift towards more positive relations with Georgia.