United Abkhazia (Abkhaz: Аҧсны Акзаара, Russian: Единая Абхазия) is a political party in Abkhazia. United Abkhazia was founded on March 25, 2004 as a socio-political movement, with the specific goal of presenting a single opposition candidate for the October 2004 presidential elections.
It entered into an alliance with the Amtsakhara and Aitaira movements and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and they named former Prime Minister Sergei Bagapsh as their joint candidate on July 20, 2004. Bagapsh won the elections by a small margin, but new elections were held because of a dispute over the results with runner up, former Prime Minister Raul Khadjimba. Bagapsh and Khadjimba agreed to run together on a national unity ticket and won the rerun election in 2005.
Artur Mikvabia, chairman of United Abkhazia since it had first been created, announced 25 July 2007 that he would resign his post and retire from politics, but members of the party stated that they would not accept this, and Mikvabia remained chairman.
On 27 January 2009, almost five years after its foundation, United Abkhazia was transformed into a political party. Daur Tarba, who had headed the Ochamchira district before, became the new chairman, Alkhas Kardava First Deputy Chairman and Zurab Kajaia Deputy Chairman.
Famous quotes containing the word united:
“The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could; it is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine ... a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)