The most democratic elections in Georgia
May 22nd, 2008 by jibs
Even Georgia’s President “Misha” was surprised at the results his party got in the parliamentary elections held on 21st of May. It seems the National Movement’s offensive of promises to the electorate worked magic: a tiny town of Poti on the black sea is to become a new Bahrain, or Dubai at worst, the pension will be increased to 100$, in 50 month time there will be almost no unemployment, every house will have gas and electricity, Georgia will be a major exporter of airplanes to the West and of course, the country will “get back” the separatist Abkhaz and South Ossetians within a few months.
Almost forgot, a slogan “deeds instead of words” coupled with heroics against the filthy Russians really helped to sway the voters.
According the preliminary results the pro-western-US-educated-lawyer Misha’s party is making a landslide with 60% of votes in their favor. In the morning the chief assessed that his party might even get the constitutional majority. What this means, is that the party will cut and paste constitution at its will without caring for anyones’ opinion — pretty much what has been taking place for the last 4 years.
Interestingly, Misha himself was having an election in January and got only 52% in his favor — apparently his party is more popular than him (many observers expected the exact opposite). In addition, his #1 leader and a softy Nino Burjanadze in a surprise move abandoned his boat just before the submission of the final party list. That was supposed to be a major setback… but, as it turns out — its not.
Even more interestingly — the National Movement’s faces are much less popular than those of the opposition. Say, the Republican Party’s cadres in no way can be matched by the National Movements’ rookies (the party recently underwent a major change as its leaders did much to irritate even the most ardent supporters). But, apparently politics is full of surprises!
The parliamentary elections results are magical. 
Everything started form the crisis last November when Misha squashed protests against him, closed down the opposition leaning Imedi TV and called for snap presidential elections. Strangely, the protesters actually demanded to hold the parliamentary elections this Spring. Instead, they were harshly beaten up, stuffed with a snap presidential elections and parliamentary elections in May.
In the meantime a critic and a billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili died from a heart attack (somehow everyone forgets to ask what is happening with the toxicology expertise) and Imedi TV is no longer functioning.
Judging from the results, it turns out that Misha’a mandate somehow got more reassurance in the parliamentary elections he wanted to avoid so much…
An expert in telling audiences what they want to hear, he has already stuffed some of his contemplations into the Western journalists mouths:
“I didn’t expect to recover so well after the political crisis we had last year,” he said by telephone. “We wanted a new mandate for reforms, and it looks like we’ve got it.” [read: the crisis in November was mainly because people were unhappy with reforms (and not say, injustice and centralization of power), but our reinvigorated program has won the electorates’ hearts back].
or
“You know, this is a small country with no energy resources,” he [Misha] said, between bites of traditional Georgian khachapuri cheese pie.
“The only way to make it successful is to release internal energy. The only way to release internal energy is through freedom, and freedom comes with democracy - as simple as that.” [read: freedom is good thing and therefore I am all about it].
His critics and the opposition are not in a funny mood. A part of the opposition (comes in 2nd with 18%) has promised a rebellion in case the elections were held in the same manner as in January. While their threats might as well be empty bragging, they are unlikely to agree to the results.
The truth is that these elections were a lot like the previous ones. Misha and his sympathizers, supporters or who ever else there may be, do appraise steps towards genuine democracy, freedom, progress, free elections etc. But if anyone is to look into the OSCE observers’ preliminary report, think of any Western country and imagine such things happening there, he would definitely think twice of the whole freedom and democracy platitudes.
These elections were supposed to be much, much cleaner — the Europeans have made it clear this would be a precondition to the country’s path to NATO Membership Act Plan. Now it turns out that there are “number of problems” with the elections, but some progress can be note (if you really wanna see it).
Here is how this thing works: the OSCE is unlikely to give a negative assessment outside the usual “in line with the standards, but a step backwards”. If they do assess the elections as illegitimate, they could spark a civil war easily — which is the last thing they would want to see happen.
They also can’t be jubilant because there is simply not much to be jubilant about. So they are bound to take some middle ground and push Georgians to “work harder”. The truth is, even apes can learn how to hold free and fair elections if they want to; but if there is no will, its useless.
The westerners on the other hand worry of Georgia’s external problems more than the internal ones. If anything major about Georgia is hitting headlines, you can be sure its a scuffle with Russia. Spies, terrorist attacks, invasion of the territory, incursion into airspace, supporting the separatists, shooting down the drones, economic sanctions, visa restrictions — you name it, and it is between Georgia and Russia.
During these elections too Misha cried wolf on Russia’s aggression. In one of the series of confrontations with the Russians (and my personal favorite), the Russian peacekeepers’ truck was held by the Georgian special forces as they were drunk driving. Miraculously, in the middle of nowhere, the good journalists were able to film the whole incident — especially the culmination of how the Georgian soldiers dragged the Russian peacekeeper under the gun point. Uh, good stuff — vote for National Movement.
One way or another, Georgia is seen in the west through “evil Russia” prism — pretty much whatever happens there. For instance: “The Economist” headline — “Mikheil Saakashvili’s party wins, but tensions with Russia persist” — half of the article is about tense relations with Russia, almost more news or analysis worthy than what kind of games the revered Misha is playing. It’s simply incomprehensible how the level of interest towards Georgia is missing what should be in theory more important.
Anyways… The opposition is upset. They mull about more protests. They might get desperate. Hopefully things don’t get out of control…
Richard Says
This article confirms what I have suspected all along, that the OSCE as a “democracy watchdog” is a fraud, and that it is in reality guided by ulterior political motives rather than a genuine concern for the growth of democratic values in Europe.
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Eka Says
Well … over and over again…same stuff. Things fall into only black and white also in your mind. Though I am sure you don’t think so.
I can’t believe there are people who so easily can talk about a possible civil war in Georgia. Shame on such people.
Many Georgians are sick and tired of all this clashes between Saakshvili and co and the so-called opposition.
Well, yes, Saakashvili is not a gift. Even a child can understand it. But don’t tell me that there is anything positive about this mess called the opposition.
Go ahead… boycott, demonstrate, scream and howl, curse and whatever.
Is this the right way to go and do thing. I don’t thing so.
Sanam dialogze gadasvlas ver aidzuleben tavian tavs rogorz erti, ise meore mxare, manamde ra azri akvs ramis tkmas?????????
Amitomazaa rom blog-ebi romlebiz titkosda seriozulad gamoikurebian, did echvs badeben.
I think we all need to calm down a little bit.
kindly
Eka
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
jibs Says
Richard,
OSCE might be biased, but they are weighing the probability of making things worse. If they were to say these elections had little to do with fairness, who knows what would happen. And be sure the EU countries would not want to clean up the mess. So, in a way, yes, they are biased, but for other reasons than ulterior political motives. They simply don’t want to be responsible for a major conflict in a distant country like Georgia (would be different for Latvia for instance).
Well, there is still another more comprehensive report to be released, so, wait and see. Interestingly, before the “rose revolution” 2003, those parliamentary elections were too assessed by OSCE with “encouragement”.
May 25th, 2008 at 10:21 am
jibs Says
Eka,
Openly speaking about the rebellion or civil war is irresponsible and empty bragging if you ask me. If the opposition was indeed up to something, they wouldn’t advertise this plan well in advance.
I don’t agree that the “so-called” opposition is a mess and not worth even talking about. True - in terms of organization and party system they are way below their potential. A part of the opposition is irrational and lacking any kind of long term vision. Some don’t have a program of what they intend to do once “people” elect them into comfy armchairs. And if they were to inherit responsibility of running the country now, they would probably spend their energy on marginalizing each-other.
But, on the other hand, opposition is essential for meaningful democracy. Take a republican party for instance — those people are very resourceful in terms of their political views, their experience and erudition. Had this party made it to the parliament, they would be instrumental in passing better laws.
In fact, the opposition should be a welcome news to everyone regardless of political views. That is what the parliament is all about: to debate, analyse, oppose and pass balanced laws. When there is only one party sitting there, the parliament loses its purpose, especially that most of those party members know only how to press the button unanimously.
Opposition represented meaningfully in the parliament would bring about checks and balances on the authorities and make them more responsible for their actions.
About the elections: it should be also in everyone’s interests to hold fair elections. And by fair I mean fair, where votes are counted properly, when there is no intimidation, when “government official’s actions don’t blur with those of the party’s” etc. Also, if someone is caught violating these rules, he should be punished by law — unfortunately, in Georgia this doesn’t take place and these instances are called “shortcomings”. Later those “shortcomings” are the same people violating the elections again and again. This must stop.
You might think these things don’t go in line with the Georgian reality. Maybe so, but they should. Look at Ukraine for instance - although not a perfect example of transitioning to democracy, they hold truly free elections. Georgia could too.
As for switching to the dialogue — that’s what the parliament is all about, a place for a dialogue. But if the governance system, institutions, media, etc. do not provide a meaningful representation of different views, that’s when you get street protests. Quite frankly, the National movement talked much about “dialogue” after the presidential elections, but the only change was reform of the public broadcaster - which is close to nothing… They did manage to discredit the opposition though.
The bottom-line is that unless rules of the game are not agreed upon by all stakeholders, instability will be a constant factor. In fact, those in opposition with more radical views will be getting more support this way. Is that good for anyone?
May 25th, 2008 at 10:52 am
jibs Says
Here is the Human Rights Center reporting on the free and fair elections. Difficult to believe…
http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&lang=en
…
May 25th, 2008 at 11:24 am
jibs Says
an article from Radio Free Europe asks why despite such high stakes, the elections were again marred by irregularities. The authors wonder why despite Saakashvili’s repeated urges “not to interfere wsith the election processes” his subbordinates defied him. Could that be a part of their DNA?
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/05/608d1a9b-dfad-4b42-badb-b31f68c96332.html
I have an answer: if 5% of those who were violating the election processes were punished by law, they would be a dramatic decrease in falsifications. Guess what? No one was punished during the presidential elections - so what incentive did Saakashvili’s subordinates have to stop? None - in a fact, a hefty % for the master is going to get them a few pads on the head.
On another instance, the Public Defender was simply forbidden to view the election polling video recordings after he discovered 5 thousand extra votes harnessed during the elections in January. But why did Saakashvili close his eyes on this? could it be that he is not aware this is not so democratic? or he simply does not know about this? OR Maybe be he was the one to issue this decree for his rubber stamp parliament to adopt?
It would be all normal and ordinary for a post soviet state beyond baltics and ukraine. I had an impression Georgia aspired to join those ranks — even had a revolution in the name of these ideals — but, things slowly drifted into their places and Georgia seems very far from its past potential to join the European family (at least through sharing similar ideals in spirit).
Hard to believe a couple years back, Georgia’s official course was to join the EU (Saakashvili promised that at some point during his presesidency this would take place).
His promises back then brought optimism and hope. Now I am not sure if anyone honestly belives a thing he says (I have in mind the promises to reunite Georgia within months, get rid of poverty in a few more, make a dubai out of his country, etc).
An ambitious young idealist and his government received a few winks for enthusiasm in the past — but right now, at a stage when George Orwell’s pigs have started walking on two legs, the picture is rather disappointing. Accounts on how the voters were intimidated, assaulted and harrassed during the elections only shows one things: still no respect for employer (people)… what democracy?
May 28th, 2008 at 5:13 pm