On 03/01/2016, the Law "On the Ombudsman of the Republic of Abkhazia" of February 24, 2016, No. 4053-s-V came into force. (It was adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia on February 10, 2016). The new law aimed to ensure the universal exercise of human rights and freedoms, as well as the implementation of state power following the principle of good governance. Another objective was to ensure guarantees of state protection of human and civil rights, promotion of their observance by state authorities, local authorities, and officials.

Part 1 of Article 2 of the Law determines that the main tasks of the Commissioner are to prevent violations, as well as to assist in the restoration of violated human and civil rights on the territory of the Republic; assist in bringing the legislation on human and civil rights in line with the Constitution of the Republic of Abkhazia.

In cases of flagrant and mass violations of universally recognized human rights and freedoms, in cases of particular public importance, or if it is necessary to protect the interests of those who are unable to independently use legal remedies, the Commissioner has the right to take appropriate measures on his/her initiative within his/her competence (part 5 of Article 14 of the Law).

The Commissioner considers the outcome of the presidential elections in the RA(verified by the Central Election Commission), to be contradicting the Constitutional Law "On Presidential Elections” and restricting the voting rights of citizens.

RA Central Electoral Commission deemed it appropriate to ignore the votes cast against candidates, and not to reflect them in the vote count. Whereas part 2 of Art. 19 of the Constitutional Law indicates that the candidate who secures a majority vote, provided that the number of votes cast for the candidate is greater than the number of votes cast against him/her, shall be deemed elected. This only holds if at least 25 percent of eligible voters took part in the poll.

The Constitutional Law of the Republic of Abkhazia of 12.04.2019 No. 4768-s-VI "On Amendments to Certain Acts in the Sphere of Electoral Legislation" (adopted by the Parliament of RA on 04.04.2019. (Art. 18) cancels the part, where it’s indicated that the CEC finalizes and adds to the protocol the number of votes cast against each candidate.

However, this does not eliminate the need for the votes to be counted. Part 2 of Art. 19 of the Constitutional Law contains a requirement for votes cast against each candidate to be counted, and for their exact number to be indicated. Therefore RA CEC violated this norm by indicating only the number of votes cast against all registered candidates in the election protocol.

The number of votes cast against each registered candidate was not reflected in the final vote count. The meaning of “number of votes cast against each candidate" should be clarified. We assume that this is the number of votes cast in favor of the opponent candidate plus the votes cast against all. This conclusion is based on Part 2 of Art. 19 of the Constitutional Law, which indicates two conditions for determining the winning candidate: first, the need for a majority of votes; secondly, the excess of this number over the number of votes cast against a candidate. These are two interdependent and complementary conditions. Yet voting against all also implies the protest of voters against both candidates, therefore, these votes should be taken into account. If votes are being ignored, this indicates a violation of Part 1 Art. 49 of the Constitution of the RA and part 2 Art. 19 of the Constitutional Law. The procedure itself does not contain logical fallacies and is fairly simple. Any electoral fraud by use of this provision is unlikely if the secrecy of the ballot is ensured. At the same time, votes against all should not be used in favor of the candidate with the minority. During the election process, the RA CEC illegally annulled all negative votes by not including them in the vote count. Consequently, the RA CEC violated provision 1 of article 1 of the Constitutional Law on equal suffrage, which implies that each vote must have equal weight, as a necessary element of the fairness of elections.

It follows from the foregoing that the CEC's actions were aimed at limiting human rights, namely, the electoral right of citizens. By ignoring the principle of political pluralism, the Central Election Commission of RA has demonstrated the lack of interest in genuine elections, while depriving voters of a real choice. The Central Election Commission did not include thousands of negative votes in the results, thus depriving thousands of citizens of their right to take part in the conduct of public affairs by making a real choice without restrictions. Thus, the RA CEC restricted the political will of the people, which is a violation of Article 2 of the RA Constitution, which states that democracy is the basis of state power in the Republic of Abkhazia. Citizens are the bearers of sovereignty and the sole source of authority in the Republic of Abkhazia. The people exercise their authority directly or through freely chosen representatives.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948) states that the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and will be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (of December 6, 1966) states that every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:

(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;

(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

When holding presidential elections and determining the results, the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Abkhazia must be guided exclusively by international human rights standards, the RA Constitution, and the current electoral legislation of the Republic of Abkhazia, and not by aspirations of the current government or any political parties.

Any measures that limit or undermine the will of the people represent a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (paragraph 3 of Article 21), the Constitution of the Republic of Abkhazia, thus making the elections illegitimate.

Only free and fair elections, held in a constitutional and democratic order and in accordance with electoral legislation of the RA can be considered legitimate.

I express hope that this Statement will contribute to the restoration of violated human rights, namely: the electoral rights of citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia.