A briefing on Sunday saw the head of the Central Election Commission of Abkhazia, Dmitri Marschan, announce the results of the second round of the presidential election. According to Marschan, the politician Badra Gunba, who received 54.73% of the votes, has been elected as the president of the Republic. Preliminary figures indicate that 54,954 voters cast their ballots in his favor.
Gunba’s opponent, Adgur Ardsinba, a candidate from the opposition, received 41.54% of the votes, with 41,708 people casting their ballots in his favor. The election commission reported that a total of 70% of Abkhazia’s citizens, or 100,412 people, participated in the voting process.
In the first round on February 15, the voter turnout was 68.62%, with a total of 98,790 people casting their ballots. Gunba received 46.38% of the votes, while Ardsinba received 36.92%. The second round of the presidential election was held in the Republic on Saturday.
Badra Gunba was born on August 14, 1981, in the city of Sukhumi in Abkhazia, then an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Gunba holds a Ph.D. in economics and was the culture minister of Abkhazia from 2011 to 2014. In April 2020, he took the position of vice president and since November 19, 2024, he has been the acting president of Abkhazia.
In 2008, Georgia lost control of its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in a five-day war against Russia. Russia, under the presidency of Dmitri Medvedev, recognized the regions as an independent state, with only a few countries doing the same. Since the war, regular units of the Russian military have been stationed in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, with Georgia considering the regions as occupied by Russia.