Valery Kvarchia, Head of the new Abkhaz legislature. April 12, 2017. Photo: Screengrab from Abaza TV

Abkhaz President Raul Khajimba, who made an opening speech at the inaugural session of the region’s newly elected legislature on April 12, expressed hope that the assembly would “effectively and substantively cooperate” with executive and judicial branches.

“It is very important that all branches of government work in agreement - this is the very foundation of the effectiveness of the state and of the success of positive transformations that our citizens are longing for,” Khajimba told the MPs. 

The Abkhaz leader also touched upon the new parliament’s agenda, saying that the electoral legislation needs to be improved and that economic and social reforms need to be pursued. 

At its first session, the new Abkhaz Parliament also elected the assembly chairman and three deputy chairman. Two candidates contending for the region’s assembly chairmanship were Valery Kvarchia and Batal Tabaghua. Kvarchia eventually won the poll, obtaining 20 votes against Tabaghua’s 10. Said Kharazia, Levon Galustyan and Mikhail Sangulia were voted in the positions of deputy chairmen.

Valery Kvarchia (b. February 10, 1946) is considered to be the supporter of the incumbent Abkhaz President. He was an academic during the Soviet period, went into politics in the early 1990s and served in the region’s parliament since 2007.

All three of the new deputy chairmen were members of the assembly’s previous convocation in 2012-2017.

Voters in Abkhazia cast their ballots on March 12 and March 26 to elect the region’s 35-member National Assembly. Abkhaz lawmakers are elected for a five-year term through a majoritarian system in single-mandate constituencies.

Elections in the region are denounced as illegitimate by Tbilisi and the international community, except of Russia and three other countries (Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru), which have recognized the region as an independent state.