Chances that the August 26 presidential election in Abkhazia will grow into an internal strife like it happened seven years ago are very small this time, one of the presidential candidates, Alexander Ankvab, said.

He said in an interview with RFE/RL Russian-language service, Ekho Kavkaza, on August 22 probability that the events of 2004 would be repeated “is very little”. Presidential race in 2004 in the breakaway region grew into a fierce confrontation in the streets. He said, that “the Abkhaz society does not want reoccurrence of those events.”

“Abkhazia needs stability, calm and development,” he said.

On a recent confrontation with another candidate Sergey Shamba, Ankvab said he was not paying much attention to that and to those allegations leveled against him when he was accused by Shamba’s supporters of cooperating with Tbilisi during the war in early 1990s.

Ankvab spoke against of a coalition government after the elections, saying: “Who said that the coalition government is a good one?”

He also reiterated his negative stance towards existence of posts of prime minister and vice president saying, that there should be fewer executives and “no duplication” of duties. Ankvab also said that in case of election he was willing to initiate relevant constitutional changes.