SUKHUM -- According to the results of the second round of voting, held on 24 March in 20 electoral constituencies, 20 members of the parliament of Abkhazia were elected.

Among them are three representatives from the opposition-party "The People's Unity-Forum of Abkhazia," two from the party "United Abkhazia”, whilst the other 15 were nominated by initiative groups. Among the 40 candidates who entered the second round were six representatives of "The People’s Unity-Forum of Abkhazia", three candidates from the party "United Abkhazia", and one from “The Party of Economic Development of Abkhazia”, whereas the other 30 came from initiative groups.

Only three of the nine members of the current parliament managed to gain victory in the second round of voting.

In accordance with the law, the candidate who receives most votes in the second ballot shall be considered elected as a deputy. The second round of voting shall be deemed to be valid on any turnout of voters.

And yet, voter-turnout in the 24 March second round as a whole washigher than on 10 March and amounted to 46.21%.

In the first round, turnout was 44.51%.

We recall that, in the elections of 10 March, out of the 148 parliamentary candidates who ran in 35 districts only 13 were elected.

Thus, 33 deputies have already been elected to the new parliament of Abkhazia.

In the Sukhum electoral constituency No. 1, a re-election will take place on 6 May, but as yet no final decision has been made by the court on the contested 21st district.

Source: ApsnyPress