MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2019) Over 150 polling stations will be open across the Republic of Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, on Sunday for its citizens to cast their ballots in a presidential election.
There are nine candidates for the office, including current Abkhaz President Raul Khadzhimba, Astamur Tarba, the former head of the republic's Security Service, and defense minister's adviser Oleg Arshba.
The candidate who gets more than a half of the vote, with a voter turnout above 50 percent, will become next president.
Both president and vice president will be elected tomorrow.
The election will be monitored by observers from both chambers of the Russian parliament, as well as the Committee for External Relations of Russia's St. Petersburg.
While being a part of Georgia, Abkhazia suffered from ethnic tensions between Abkhaz and Georgian populations, resulting in the 1992-1993 war. The conflict ended with Abkhazia being a de facto independent country. In August 2008, Abkhazia and Russia fend off an attack by the Georgian military leading to the official founding of self-governing Abkhaz nation. It still remains unrecognized by the majority of world's nations, with the exception of Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria.
