The president of Abkhazia is open to calling elections if the “coup plotters” leave Parliament

MADRID 16 Nov. () –

The president of the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, declared this Saturday that he is openly contemplating the possibility of leaving office and calling elections as long as the “coup plotters” leave the Parliament that they occupied this past Friday in protest against an agreement granting projects to Russian companies.

“They are exerting enormous pressure on the deputies to force them to make an illegal decision: the dismissal of the president,” Bzhania declared in relation to the opposition movement, a declared enemy of an agreement that responds, they understand, to pressure exerted from Moscow.

The president, however, has assured that he does not want to “give the impression” that he is “clinging to power”, but he has reiterated the importance of adhering to the constitution. “Otherwise, our state will not be able to bear it,” he explained during a speech in Tamish, his hometown, where he has offered a way out of this crisis.

“When the coup plotters have left the legislative complex, I will prepare to call elections and present my resignation,” said the president, in statements collected by the official agency Apsnypress, before adding that his number two, vice president Badra Gunba, would hold office. power provisionally during that period.

“I am willing to go to the elections and have the people say who they support. Let the truth be the result of the will of the people, and there is nothing more to say about it,” he concluded.

THE OPPOSITION DEMANDS HIS IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION

The opposition to the president is identified as a heterogeneous group known as the Coordination Council, whose leaders are still this afternoon in the presidential administration offices inside Parliament in the capital, Sukhumi, after ensuring that the president has fled.

The presidential press service, on the other hand, assures that Bzhania’s visit to his hometown was on his agenda and that at no time has he shied away from the position, reports local media Abkhazinform.

Meanwhile, the population has once again gathered in front of the Parliament headquarters this Saturday at the request of the opposition group, which continues to draw up a transition proposal that includes the dismissal of the president and the opening of negotiations for a process that will take place in the Sukhumi Parliament itself.

“Parliament will be the platform that will bring positions together and the body that will do everything possible to return events to the constitutional field,” said deputy Leonid Lakerbaya after a meeting with the president in Tamish.

For the rest, the situation remains in a state of relative calm after the altercations on Friday, which have so far left 14 hospitalized in a mild condition, according to the Abkhazian Ministry of Health.