SUKHUMI, Georgia (AFP) - The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia voted for its first new leader in a decade, amid simmering tension between the separatist regime here and the central government in Tbilisi.
The tough-talking new Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to restore central rule over Abkhazia, but many fear he could be on a collision course with Abkhazia`s rulers -- and with neighbouring Russia, which has given tacit backing to the separatist regime.
The man widely seen as favourite to win Sunday`s vote was 46-year-old Raul Khajimba, currently Abkhazia`s prime minister. He is seen as a pro-Russian who will fiercely defend his region`s autonomy.
"We were in Georgia once and we do not want to go back to that," Khajimba said as he cast his ballot at school No.4 in the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi.
"Whoever wins the election, Abkhazia`s path will be that of an independent state. Our policy of moving closer to Russia will (also) stay the same."
In the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, there was condemnation of an election in which ballot papers were printed in Russian and Abkhaz, but not Georgian, even though the region is still internationally recognized as part of the former Soviet republic.
"Of course we, along with the whole of the international community, do not recognise the legitimacy of these elections," Georgia`s Security Minister Vano Merabishvili said late Saturday.
But he added: "We do not intend to interfere in any way, unless pressure is put on (ethnic Georgians living in Abkhazia). We are absolutely ready to defend our citizens if need be."
Sunday`s poll was the first properly contested leadership election held in Abkhazia since it shook off Tbilisi`s rule in a war in the early 1990s.
That conflict left some 10,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of refugees, the majority of them ethnic Georgians who fled Abkhazia.
There are fears that the three-way spat between Tbilisi, Moscow and Sukhumi could again erupt into violence, destabilizing a Caucasus region which is soon to be a strategic gateway for oil exports from the Caspian Sea to Western markets.
The row over Abkhazia`s status was rekindled after Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer, was swept to power in Georgia last year in a dramatic bloodless revolution.
He has said he will not rest until Georgia`s separatist regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- are back under Tbilisi`s control.
This summer he announced Georgian warships would sink any vessels carrying tourists from Russia to resorts in Abkhazia, provoking a furious response from Moscow.
Sunday`s vote was called to choose a replacement for Vladislav Ardzinba, the man who led Abkhazia`s war of secession but who for the last several years has been incapactiated by serious illness.
A field of five candidates is competing but only two, Khajimba and businessman Sergei Bagpash, have a realistic chance of winning, according to observers.
Khajimba got a vital boost when Russia`s President Vladimir Putin gave him a televised audience -- a crucial endorsement in a region that is effectively a Russian protectorate.
Bagpash is a 55-year-old who used to serve as prime minister. He has a Georgian wife, which has led some observers to say he might be more ready to compromise with Tbilisi than his rival.
Also on the ballot were Abkhazia`s former foreign affairs chief Sergei Shamba, another ex-premier Anri Jeregeniya and Yakub Lakoba, head of the opposition People`s Party.
"For me it is a great day to be able to vote for a candidate like Khajimba," said Tina Tsvizhba, a 55-year-old retired medical worker who, like many in Abkhazia, has her pension paid by the Russian state.
"I am counting on him winning the election and becoming president," she added.
There were some accusations Sunday from the opposition camp that Khajimba`s supporters were pressuring voters into supporting their candidate.
But Sergei Smyr, chairman of the election commission said that "there have been no problems. Everything has been going calmly and the voters are being very active."