The rebel Georgian region of Abkhazia voted for a president on Saturday in an election hailed by sponsor Russia but shunned by most of the world. The five-way race is the first since Moscow recognised the Black Sea territory of 200,000 people as an independent state after a brief war with Georgia last year and could prove a test of stability.
US ally Georgia has branded the vote a "comedy" led by Russia, Abkhazia's economic lifeline and protector with thousands of servicemen in the territory. The opposition is already warning of foul play and threatening to call supporters into the streets.
"Elections are the basic indicator of the well-being of the state," incumbent president Sergei Bagapsh, who is running for a second term, said after voting at the National Library. "All the candidates understand that in Abkhazia today we are choosing not just a president but our further course."
Russia has billed the election Abkhazia's first democratic test since it was recognised by the Kremlin. Officially the West will ignore the vote. But Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s, is watched closely for its ability to stir friction between Russia and Georgia in the volatile South Caucasus, a transit route for oil and gas to the West.
Bagapsh faces four rivals who include former vice president and ex-KGB agent Raul Khadzimba and tycoon Beslan Boutba. Russia does not want to be embarrassed by a repeat of a stand-off in late 2004 when then Russian-backed Khadzimba challenged results that gave Bagapsh victory and there was unrest in Sukhumi. Moscow has not named a favourite this time.
Turnout at midday (0900 GMT) was 21 percent. Bagapsh draws support from the fact Russia recognised Abkhazia under his watch. Nicaragua and Venezuela followed suit. "We have been recognised as independent and we liberated the Kodori Gorge," said artist and Bagapsh voter Roza Chamagua, referring to an enclave seized from Georgian control last year.
"I love him with all my soul, as a president and as a man," she said after voting in the sleepy seaside capital, where new hotels stand alongside crumbling villas and empty apartment buildings gutted in the 1992-93 war.
But some Abkhaz, who pride themselves on a history of resistance to stronger powers, accuse Bagapsh of handing too much influence to former Soviet master Russia, on which Abkhazia depends for pensions, investment and at least half its budget. Khadzimba warned on Friday against Abkhazia becoming an "amorphous space without rights or responsibility."
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Abkhazia and the breakaway region of South Ossetia threw off Georgian rule. After mounting tensions, pro-Western Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia in August 2008, drawing a devastating Russian counter-strike. Abkhazia took advantage to seize the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia.
Some 3,600 Russian servicemen now patrol its borders and stunning coastline, where Stalin's luxurious dacha still stands. Russia is building two military bases, has granted Abkhazia use of its international dialling code and has taken over running of the railway. The currency is the rouble.
Whoever wins will try to restore Abkhazia's former glory as the playground of the Moscow elite. But the result will make no difference to the West, which wants Abkhazia to re-integrate with Georgia - something all candidates say will never happen. Russian observers are monitoring the election. The right to vote is limited to Abkhaz passport holders, largely excluding some 40,000 remaining Georgians. Polls close at 8 pm (1700 GMT) and preliminary results are expected on Sunday.
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