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Patarkatsishvili is out of the presidential race, head of his campaign will almost surely be charged with attempt to overthrow the government, Saakashvili’s PR is way better than that of the oppositions’, Imedi TV went into self-imposed exile and it seems the elections won’t be free or fair. About all this later…
Say in your country, 4 years ago elections took place and there were 5 million people registered to vote. Four years later, the voters’ lists show that there are 7 million people eligible to vote. This takes place on the background of negative population growth.
In Georgia, 4 years ago there were 2.4 million people who could vote, and now there are 3.4 million. The opposition claims the government is gearing 
up for falsification. The authorities respond that the list has swelled because unlike 4 years ago, the Georgians living abroad have been added in.
There are a few odd moments though. The members of the opposition went to check some of the people included in the voters’ list and discovered not only hundreds of deceased persons, but also buildings that house them.
First: say a pensioner died, and somehow the bureaucracy failed to note this. Who claims his pension since he is officially alive? Why are there hundreds of such known cases?
Second, if the building don’t physically exist, how was it that some voters are registered there? It means, if those non-existing houses are listed in the administrative chronicles, then those residents should be paying taxes, the house normally has to be maintained, repaired and sustained (presumably) by the local municipality. Where is that money then?
Continue reading ‘Wrangle over voters’ lists’
So, the Human Rights Watch gave a critical evaluation to the breakup of the Tbilisi demonstration on November 7. It was more than critical in fact — the 
report concludes that even if Saakashvili is reelected, his administration would have much more to prove to show that the country is “back on track”.
His allies were furious: for a month now they have been trying to play down the seriousness of November 7. “Such things happen in the West all the time” they said. And now the Human Rights Watch report claims that such things happen in less democratic states. Or even the authoritarian ones.
Saakashvili’s allies went on attack:
“The timing of this report only serves to damage the reputation of Human Rights Watch and I am sorry that it [HRW] took this step and did not think of its reputation.” said Eka Tkeshelashvili, the Minister of Justice.
“I am not analyzing Human Rights Watch’s international credibility,” she said. “Although, its treatment of the United States and in particular the Bush administration has been quite biased.” [Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2007-12-21]
So, HRW would be considered unbiased if it released its report after the elections, and if it claimed that break up of demonstrations happen in the West all the time. Also, it’s disappointing to hear that Bush’s administration is considered an epitome of democracy within the Georgian administration.
From 8 PM till after the midnight Georgian television is soaked with the elections fever coverage. Most broadcasts sum up the daily news — who did what, who said what, and what evidence they provided to back their claims — usual elections stuff. Oddly, I saw one of my acquaintances speak on the pro-government “independent” channel Rustavi 2.
He was attending the meeting with Giorgi Baramidze– the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration — basically a close ally of Mikheil Saakashvili.
Unexpectedly for me, my acquaintance (whose name I would rather not disclose) told Rustavi 2 reporters something along these lines: “I am here to support Mikheil Saakashvili and reject the bought up opposition”.
The next day, against all odds, I met him at a traditional event. After a word or two about general howabouts, I asked him about his position towards the authorities. The answer was beyond what I expected.
He told me that prior to the meeting with Baramidze, the head of his academy instructed everyone to comment favorably on Saakashvili, otherwise dismissal would follow. “I was told to say something good about the government,” he told me, “or else I wouldn’t be a student any longer”.
More interesting is how it was that Rustavi 2 necessarily ask him the question. Its very simple: he is an A-student purposely placed in the front aisle, who just happened to be interviewed by the “independent” Rustavi 2 television. This say much about the unbiased coverage, let alone coercion.
Vladimir Socor, an analyst often writing on the Georgian affairs dedicated a piece to presidential hopeful Badri Patarkatsishvili (Badri Patarkatsishvili: From Russian businessman to Georgian presidential claimant. Eurasia Daily Monitor, December 21) Demonstrating a vast knowledge of Patarkatsishvili’s 
background, Socor says “The government’s anti-corruption policies and the new business environment in the country had severely curtailed Patarkatsishvili’s scope for doing business in his accustomed, post-Soviet 1990s-style ways.”
Therefore, Patarkatsishvili moved to clear way for his “murky” business deals by setting up an opposition party run by former allies of Aslan Abashidze. Moreover, “Patarkatsishvili has also called for dividing Georgia into ten “federal” units, which would practically dissolve the state.”
Socor moves to prove that although Patarkatsishvili is wanted in Russia, there is a reason to believe that he actually turned into Kremlin’s friend now.
It is interesting that amidst the pile of issues concerning the elections in Georgia, Socor chose to defame Patarkatsishvili. A year ago, he probably would have lauded Patarkatsishvili for his positive role in rebuilding Georgia’s robust and corruption free economy.
A few comments: first, if Patarkatsishvili wanted to make a few more billions, I am sure there are better places outside Georgia. Mostly the businesses he runs, don’t actually pump money out of Georgia, one the contrary. As for Aslan Abashidze’s former allies, the ruling party has a couple of those as well — not a successful benchmark if the point is to highlight the rogue group of people behind Patarkatsishvili.
Continue reading ‘Socor is at it once again’
Here is what the influential crisis group has to say about the breakup of the demonstration in Georgia this November. And here is the Human Rights Watch’s account.
Both accentuate on the excessive use of force and cruel violation of human rights.
The Georgian law on broadcasting requires that the TV stations submit information on the ownership. It turns out that Rustavi 2 and Mze, two 
channels widely viewed as biased towards the current authorities, are owned by Georgian Industrial Group and GeoMedia Group.
The Georgian Industrial Group is a giant company with diversified businesses, whose founder is lawmaker Davit Bezhuashvili — current Foreign Minister’s brother. GeoMedia Group, on the other hand, is an incognito company registered in the Marshal Islands.
Imedi TV, is 100% owned by the I-Media governed by NewsCorp Europe. Badri Patarkatsishvili is the board chairman. (civil.ge)
Interestingly, media monitoring survey conducted the Central Elections Committee has identified Shalva Natelashvili of Labor Party as the most frequently mentioned presidential candidate. Natelashvili is a radical populist, who promises free gas and electricity to population for 3 years.
The authorities brand him as the “radical element” in the opposition. In fact, his chances of winning the elections are close to astronomical improbability. One way to explain Natelashvili’s popularity in media is that on the background of his promises, other candidates, such as Saakashvili for example, look much better.
Continue reading ‘Who owns the TV stations?’
Ex-president Saakashvili’s 2nd bid for the office is visibly well organized: he travels even to the smallest of the cities where his supporters swarm the central square and chant his name. Cameramen operate from portable 
cranes while Saakashvili is well placed on the podium above the people. Red and white flags, posters and symbols of his campaign brighten up the gloomy mood.
Saakashvili is a showman. Or the man of show. He will promise the crowd anything from making their village the most modern village in Europe to increasing their pensions or salaries threefold. If that doesn’t impress them, he will say Russians will never break Georgians, and very soon, his dream of joining the NATO and reuniting Georgia will come true. And if that doesn’t impress them, he will say “my dream will come true within weeks”.
Saakashvili has always been like this. Possibly it is precisely because of his inflated imagination that tens of thousands expressed their anger during the November demonstrations. It must be frustrating when someone promises you European palaces and you realize that except for a fountain or two somewhere in the city center, not much has changed. At least not in the direction of being the “best in Europe”.
But, nonetheless, the audiences cheering to his promises are usually high. Sometimes too high. If there is a central street that can hod 200 people, that’s exactly how many there will be disregarding the wether conditions. If there is a place for 10,000 people, there will be exactly that many. How does he manage this?
Continue reading ‘Misha’s PR-ism in times of elections’
So here is what happened: Berdzenishvili explains:
“When I was speaking about Matyas Eorsi an anchor intervened by saying ‘he is Hungarian’ and I just specified that he was Hungarian Jew. I have just specified his origin. By the way I think that the only positive thing about this person is that he is Jew. I am astonished with all this media hype about these remarks, because it is ridiculous to accuse me of anti-semitism,” MP Berdzenishvili told Civil.Ge.
Public Defender supports Berdzenishvili’s explanation:
Public Defender, Sozar Subari, said on December 14 that it was of course not positive when Eorsi’s ethnic origins were specified in that particular situation by Berdzenishvili. Subari, however, also defended Berdzenishvili by saying: “I had no impression that he [MP Berdzenishvili] used [Eorsi’s] ethnical background for negative purposes.”
Too much hype about nothing?
Imedi TV has reported that journalists from Mze TV were assaulted by the Russian peacekeepers stationed at the Enguri bridge.
The footage showed the Russian peacekeeper break the microphone. I wonder if those people at the Enguri bridge have some sort of procedural guidelines of how to behave with the “undesirables”. Breaking the journalists’ equipment is not what peacekeepers should be doing.
