There are many problems in Georgia — it would take a very long time to account all of them. But, to be fair, there is no comparison to the problems just a few years back.
Before Mikheil Saakashvili, Eduard Shevarnadze ruled Georgia for the most part of the 1990s (excluding a few decades in the Soviet times). His government was incapable, ineffective and impotent. Electricity, which is essential for any kind of economic development, was always scarce.
Crime, corruption, stagnating economy, ineffective institutions, fractured country and consistently fraudulent elections — this was the Georgia under Shevarnadze. Not to mention the traumatic civil wars and wars for territorial integrity in the beginning of 1990s.
In short, there is no comparison to today’s Georgia. Many things have improved: electricity is rarely a problem, streets look decent, crime rate has gone down, there is an unprecedented economic growth and more importantly, Georgia has appeared on Europe’s map.
Not everything is rosy of course. Under Saakashvili, media has been constantly pressured to report the “right” news, judiciary has been increasingly centralized, human rights have been repeatedly violated, enemies of the state have been discovered and neutralized almost monthly — to mention a few.
Former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili’s shocking allegations, disastrous break up of the November demonstration and storming of the Imedi TV channel has further distanced Saakashvili from his democratic credentials.
Georgian presidential elections are over. The winner is Mikheil Saakashvili with some 53.4% in his favor. Most heads of states have congratulated Saakashvili with re-election. Even the opposition — who cried wolf from the start — seems to have shifted it’s focus to the parliamentary elections this Spring.
Despite overall “positive” assessment by the election watchdogs, the post election interim report by the OSCE points out even more irregularities.
The election administration at all levels and the courts did not fully and adequately consider and investigate a considerable number of complaints regarding irregularities in voting, counting and tabulation of election results.
OSCE/ODIHR EOM observers described the tabulation process at the DEC level as slow, not very well organized, and often chaotic. In some DECs, they noted a tense atmosphere during tabulation. There were cases in which PEC protocols given to the OSCE/ODIHR EOM differed from those provided by DECs. For example, protocols provided by DECs for Batumi (PECs 11 and 73), Lentekhi (PEC 1), and Dmanisi (PEC 30) showed a significant increase of votes cast for Mr. Saakashvili.
The CEC announced that the overall turnout was 56.19 per cent. In several DECs, the turnout was considerably higher than the average. Some 23 PECs reported 100 per cent turnout, while another 205 commissions reported turnout between 90 and 100 per cent.
The election administration at all levels, and the courts, did not fully and adequately consider and investigate a considerable number of complaints regarding irregularities in voting, counting and tabulation of election results.
Much more is in the report. Please take a few minutes to read it. I think it is clear that manipulation took place, but, to be in line with the international observers, SOMEHOW these irregularities didn’t effect the final result.
Nowadays, economics seems to be the focus of the Georgian authorities. Slogans, numbers, statistics, projections, etc. come at a daily dosage. An independent parliamentarian and an expert, Valdimir Papava, is a source of skepticism and questioning.
On his website, www.papava.info, you may find many of his interviews and scholarly works. Always an interesting point of view.
Georgia’s barely-squeezed-through second term president Mikheil Saakashvili met with the Public Defender Sozar Subari. He probably hasn’t done this for the last 3 years. Many times, Saakashvili’s team blamed the Public Defender for oppositional views. In a very detailed open letter, Subari expressed his views concerning what went wrong in once “Beacon of Democracy”.
Why Saakashvili at all met with the Public Defender, can be easily explained by his opening statement: “Allow me to congratulate you on your election for the second Presidential term.”
Right now the authorities have softened considerably. There is a reason to believe that more than half of the cabinet will change. New faces will come to eradicate poverty in Georgia. In short, everything will be alright after those few bad apples are removed from the basket.
In the meantime the opposition has not accepted Saakashvili’s victory due to election violations. Although the OSCE has branded the elections as “broadly democratic”, they have also noted certain “concerns”, which they claim didn’t effect the overall result.
I have written about these violations in the past. And how they didn’t influence the 3.4% with which Saakashvili avoided the second round run-off, is still an open question to me.
In any case, Saakashvili met with the Public Defender because he liked the opening statement of his letter. The main message is however more important than congratulations. After all, Public Defender’s competence is human rights, not election observance.
It’s a bit lengthy, but very much worth understanding why all the mess has happened in Georgia over the last few months.
Sozar Subari: Open Letter to President Saakashvili (excerpts, some minor editing)
INFALLIBILITY:
There is no time for the Human Rights, (for) first we have to build the state”- this is a slogan of the governmental beau monde that declared the monopoly on infallibility and veracity. Who disagreed with this has been declared to be an enemy of the state.
The officials seriously taking part in the estimation of country’s political course openly and cynically insulted the Human Rights and, as a rule, appeared as protectors of those public servants who, in the full sense of the word, scorned the Human Rights.
Only substitution of old faces with the new ones in the Parliamentary list is not enough. What has to be improved is the attitude towards the citizens, their rights and their dignity.
CONSTRAINTS
“Everybody acknowledges that our society is being faced with the gravest situation in the field of Human Rights and, in this way, the citizens’ trust to the state is depreciating and the state consciousness is going corrupt. We have to face the truth – the recent developments and crisis in our homeland has been engendered not by the state’s adversaries’ abstract or concrete actions (though they will of course try to profit from), but by the state, when the trampling down the Human Rights by the government almost became a mode of everyday life.”
The homicides, contumelies, assault and battery, violation of ownership, demolition, bursting into and taking away property and afterwards discharging all this in TV with a cynical smile resulted in the November 2. The inexperienced public servants almost competed for an effective embittering of the people. The violence and licence became the tools for showing his/her worth in work.
I liked the articles by The Economist on Georgia: “Misha’s Mess” (November 15) and “Getting out of a mess in Georgia” (January 7). None ask “Why the mess”.
From a bird eye view it is puzzling why the crisis in Georgia has developed to a point where a compromise means a defeat to the opposition or the authorities. Although it is unusually freezing in Tbilisi, tens of thousands of people have come out to vent their anger AGAIN.
In November, the major demand of the protestors was to hold the parliamentarian elections in Spring. Constitutionally, this is when they were supposed to be held.
More than a year ago, it was Saakashvili’s initiative to prolong the parliament’s mandate for 6 months and shorten his own term with the same period. The parliament, which is completely dominated by Saakashvili’s United National Movement, approved the decision to hold both elections simultaneously sometime this year.
The argument for this is still a mystery. Somehow this decision had something to do with the elections in Russia — basically, the argument was that “We will not hold elections when Russia does, so as to avoid destabilization”. Whatever that means. In fact, it was more likely aimed to squeeze Saakashvili’s unpopular National Movement into the parliament on Saakashvili’s charisma and account.
Then came the dreadful November 7, when the protesters were brutally dispersed, beaten and many later imprisoned. Imedi TV outside the government’s control was stormed and closed down. Snap presidential elections were then set for January 5 so as to rehabilitate the authorities’ democratic credentials. Along with the elections, the plebiscite asked whether the population wanted to hold the parliamentarian elections in Spring or Fall.
The elections were brilliant says Saakashvili. The White House, along with a handful of other countries, have congratulated Misha with a victory. The OSCE said that everything was “essentially in line with the western standards”. Fate of the elections are sealed one would think.
Then, in a very unusual and unexpected interview with Frankfurter Rundschau, Head of OSCE Observers Mission Dieter Boden said “there was crass, negligent and deliberate falsification during the vote counting.” Moreover:
We are getting information from our observers that serious violations were fixed during the process of counting of votes in Batumi. Next day of elections, when OSCE mainly positively evaluated Georgia’s elections, these important violations have not been revealed yet. [says Boden]
The Georgian authorities preferred not to comment on this statement.
In fact, if one reads the OSCE preliminary report, it is hardly conceivable how these elections were free and fair. Here is what one observer, member of the Estonian Parliament says on her blog:
What started after that was amazing. When the station had closed, several strange people arrived, including policemen. They took part in counting the ballots. Members of the commission tried to falsify documents. The final results were as follows: from 1981 listed voters, 1693 voted for Saakashvili, while other candidates got only 118 votes.
Although there were about a thousand observers present in Georgia, most couldn’t reach the polling stations in the regions. In other words, in a lot of places the observers were simply absent. Imagine the way elections were conducted in those places.
That Saakashvili won with a 3% margin, on the background of such violations, is a matter of concern, to put it mildly. The opposition will not back down, and I don’t see why they should.
Besides, what was the point of carrying out the elections which were intentionally marred with the fraud? It is disappointing to see Saakashvili, who came to power on the wave of protests against rigging the elections in 2003, being charged with such violations. And he should be.
Saakashvili’s elections should have been flawless. It was his choice to hold the early presidential elections — so as to find a way out of the November crisis in Georgia, or so he says. Now that the opposition, quite correctly, blames the authorities for fraud, the crisis looks likely to re-ignite.
Compromise on holding the second round is the only way out of this mess. Otherwise confrontation is unavoidable.
The November crisis was explained by Saakashvili’s government as the product of “machine of lies” — the Imedi TV + the political aspirant and oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili.
What about now? Is it the bought up observers? Irresponsible opposition? Some other enemies? Russia by any chance?
The bottom line is that the elections were supposed to be so clean, that no one could even cite a single violations. But from what the reports say, it was far from that idyllic vision of the triumphant beacon of democracy. And its not because it’s a young and fragile , making steps on a bumpy road of “challenges”, but because particular people intentionally step over the boundaries.
Prime Time, is a popular political talk show led by a former Imedi TV journalist Inga Grigolia. Two days ago, its guest was the incumbent Mikheil Saakashvili, who talked much about his plans, mistakes, the brilliance of the elections, etc.
In the beginning of the show, a relevant question is posted and the audience votes during the show. A hypothetical example: “Do you think the person interviewed is lying?” a. Yes b. No c. Maybe — public sends sms-es and in the end a general opinion poll is presented. 55% think he is a liar.
So, one would expect a relevant question during Saakashvili’s interview. Such as “Do you think the elections were fraudulent”?
But, of course, why ask the right question when you can ask something else. The question was: “Did you go to the elections?”.
“Many critically disposed people [referring to foreign election observers] arrived in Georgia, because many foolish things have been written about Georgian in recent months,” Saakashvili said. “Over 1000 observers have arrived, that is an absolute record - it is approximately six-fold more compared to Ukraine’s previous elections in terms of per capita [ed. How Impressive!!!]. Conclusions were extremely well-disposed. These people arrived with one mood and left [the country] with absolutely different one. It means that democracy and political process has developed in Georgia.”
I guess “foolish things” is anything that didn’t praise Saakashvili’s achievements. Especially after November 7.
Take a look at the extremely well-disposed conclusions in the previous post. I wonder what should happen for the international observers to say the elections were undemocratic?
“The news coverage of private broadcasters monitored showed imbalance in favour of the ruling party’s candidate. Although, the news on public TV was somewhat more balanced in the time allocated to all candidates, the tone of its coverage favoured the former President.”
“…on contentious issues its members [Central Elections Commission] were not always observing the neutrality required of election administration, and acted in a partisan manner.”
“…inaccuracies on the voter list remain.”
“The distribution of vouchers for such things as utilities and medical supplies to vulnerable groups was criticized as an alleged misuse of budgetary funds in support of Mr. Saakashvili.”
“The vouchers prominently displayed that they were a subsidy from the President. Healthcare vouchers, as well as employment scheme leaflets, featured visually outstanding number “5”s – the number on the ballot under which the UNM has run in elections since 2004. Distributors of vouchers sometimes asked recipients whether they would vote for Mr. Saakashvili, and asked them to sign documents confirming their support. Vouchers were in some cases distributed from UNM offices.”
“The inauguration of a new pipeline by Mr. Saakashvili in Akhalkalaki, as well as the official opening of Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze highway lighting system, were given the appearance of presidential events, not in accord with Mr. Saakashvili’s status as a candidate who does not currently hold public office.”
“The campaign was overshadowed by widespread allegations of intimidation and pressure, among others on public-sector employees. These included a number of confirmed cases of pressure on opposition supporters by the police and local officials to desist from campaigning, threats of arbitrary arrest or job dismissal and cases of landlords who were pressurized not to let premises for use as opposition campaign offices. Isolated instances of violence against opposition activists, including kidnapping, were reported and verified.
It is rather hard for me to believe that Saakashvili won the elections in the first round. The exit polls aired at 10 pm yesterday, which claimed Saakashvili’s victory with over 50%, prompted [premature] celebration and a pop concert among Saakashvili’s supporters. it should be noted that the organizations and medias that conducted these polls are affiliated with the authorities.
Then comes the question: why celebrate the results which were delivered by handpicked people? Why weren’t the conductors of the exit polls agreed upon with the opposition?
This remains a mystery, unless someone wanted to gain advantage artificially. The foreign observers so far say they didn’t encounter extraordinary violations which would change the end results. The votes are being counted — 10% so far. The opposition claims victory and mass violations.
Some handpicked reactions: the author of the ResistanceGeorgia blog, who was an observer on one of the districts, says there “were serious violations all over.” Violations included “carousels” whereby certain groups voted on several different districts, voters’ intimidation and media bias.
presa.ge reports that one of their journalists experimented with the liquid substance used at the polling stations — he managed to wipe off the ink and entered to vote again, after which he informed this fact to the Central Elections Committee.
The reporter says that someone warned of vehicles with groups of activists approaching the district where he was located. One member of Saakashvili’s National Movement went outside and the group turned back.
Another journalist was threatened with physical liquidation for snooping around the polling station.
The election monitors “hailed the elections, but noted some shortcomings” - usual mumbo jumbo. It would take breaking into the polling station, violence and changing the ballot boxes when the monitors were inside for them to note something. To be fair, they must listen to what the opposition says. The final reaction is yet to be publicized.
In the meantime, the opposition gears up for demonstrations to protect their votes. The authorities have said they will uphold the stability in the country once again (I guess the same way they did on November 7).
Again: why conduct exit polls to which the opposition does not agree? This is provocative — there had to be a consensus on this issue. The opposition could do the same thing: get different exit polls and claim victory. If the consensus was reached, there would be less room for possible “instability” in the country.
