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Abkhazian president promises to continue dialogue with opposition

"The referendum [on early presidential elections] has failed and under our law we can readdress it only in two years," Raul Khadzhimba said, commenting on the referendum results
Raul Khadzhimba Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Raul Khadzhimba
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

SUKHUM, July 10. /TASS/. Abkhazian President Raul Khadzhimba has promised on Sunday to continue dialogue with the opposition.

"The referendum [on early presidential elections] has failed and under our law we can readdress it only in two years. We will continue to speak with the opposition," he told TASS, commenting on the referendum results.

Khadzhimba has dismissed opposition accusation of his failing to ensure proper conditions for the referendum on early presidential polls.

"On July 9, the bloc of opposition forces released a press statement announcing a boycott to the referendum. The statement says in particular that President Raul Khadzhimba has failed to ensure necessary conditions for the referendum. Such accusations are not true," the president said on his website on Sunday.

"The authorities have offered all conditions for free expression of will for citizens, which is confirmed by representatives of the Central Election Commission, observers and journalists who highlighted the process of the voting," the press service of the president said, adding that the bloc of opposition forces is using non-constructive criticism of the country’s leaders, fake facts, accusations and insults in respect of the president.

"Moreover, the opposition’s allegations that is has been allocated no air time on the AGTRK television channel are not true either. They have turned down such a possibility," the statement says. "False accusations and distortion of facts have become a trademark of the opposition. Its vain attempts to impose a biased position of several persons on the people only prove the opposition’s failure and the lack of people’s trust to it.".