Georgia Votes for New Parliament

Polls have opened in neighboring Georgia in what the BBC describes as a parliamentary election “overshadowed by fears of political unrest and rising tensions with Russia.” True, compared to last year’s parliamentary election in Armenia, there has so far been very little coverage of the vote even from the likes of EurasiaNet which usually launches special election sites.

Either very few care since Saakashvili was re-elected as president in January and only parliamentary elections which occur before crucial presidential votes are of interest, or nobody is expecting anything of note to happen. Following February’s presidential election in Armenia it is unlikely that Georgia’s parliamentary vote will result in the kind of unrest experienced here.

With a weak and splintered opposition, it seems improbable, although it can already be assumed that those opposed to Saakashvili will declare the election for the 150 seats up for grab to have been falsified. Indeed, the BBC reports that the threat of “revolution” hangs in the air.

The vote is expected to re-elect President Mikhail Saakashvili’s ruling United National Movement.

Some opposition leaders have said they will start a “people’s rebellion” if polls are seen to be falsified.

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The election is being seen as a test of Georgia’s commitment to democracy under the pro-Western Mr Saakashvili.

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He resigned as president in November 2007 in order to run for office again after a series of anti-government demonstrations forced him to call a snap election for 5 January 2008.

The opposition has alleged that the vote was rigged and have threatened mass protests if the parliamentary election is falsified.

Unfortunately, and quite unlike Armenia, there seems to be very little activity in the blogosphere with even TOL Georgia seemingly quiet — for now, at least. Of course, recent concerns in Abkhazia obviously overshadow a parliamentary vote although you might think they would also demand more attention be afforded to the internal politics of a country.

This is especially the case as the conduct of the vote will also determine the state of Georgia’s democratic credentials and affect its aspirations towards eventual NATO and EU membership. Regardless, EurasiaNet does carry one article which raises some concerns expressed by international observers monitoring the vote.

As was the case for Georgia’s presidential vote, a May 15 report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election observation mission found that there has been a “lack of balance” in prime-time news coverage of election candidates.

Media monitoring carried out by Georgian Opinion Research Business International for Transparency International Georgia between April 9 and May 5 indicated that while Georgian public broadcasting has been fairly successful in maintaining a time balance between all political parties, private pro-government broadcasters like Rustavi-2 and Mze have given the United National Movement more time and more positive coverage.

While Transparency International Georgia Executive Director Tamuna Karosanidze commented that the findings showed a “slight improvement” from the January presidential elections, she noted that, in general, Georgian journalists still appear to have difficulty in distinguishing between stories about political campaigning and stories about the government’s public works.

“There is not a definite line between [the governing] party and [its] campaign,” Karosanidze said. “It is hard even for journalists to draw a line.”

Interestingly, however, EurasiaNet also covers another unfortunate aspect of elections in the South Caucasus. That is, even if the opposition loses, it still protests the vote and as was the case in Armenia, it sometimes appears that pre-election campaigns are simply an unfortunate process to go through the motions with in order to prepare for street protest aimed at coming to power instead.

At a May 18 United Opposition Movement protest in a central district of Tbilisi, former presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze, the Movement’s leader, called on hundreds of supporters to rally at the Central Election Commission on election night to protect their votes.

“I call on you to gather here at 11pm on May 21 and we will announce the real results of the elections,” he said. “If they [the authorities] do not announce the real results voluntarily, we will force them to announce it.”

In her May 20 comments, Parliament Speaker Burjanadze indirectly addressed the protest plans. “Everyone should understand that there are winners and losers in elections,” she told television viewers. “And even if the result is unacceptable for a political group, if this result objectively reflects the mood and choice of the Georgian voters, it should be accepted and respected by everyone.”

International observers have earlier taken issue with the opposition for concentrating on alleged future election violations to the exclusion of detailed policy proposals.

Nevertheless, although January’s presidential election was flawed to say the least, the stakes are higher for Georgia than Armenia and the state of democracy in better shape than here or in Azerbaijan. Former Estonian Prime Minister, Mart Laar, is even advising the Georgian government and is quoted by EurasiaNet.

[…] “You must really be blind to say there haven’t been improvements” since the presidential elections, […] Mart Laar told a May 20 briefing of foreign journalists.

Increased television coverage of the opposition, a greater variety of opposition campaign ads and attempts by the National Movement to punish party members for election violations are among the positive changes cited by Laar. The government understands that an election marred by severe violations will mean that Georgia “will really lose a lot of international credibility, no matter what the National Movement[‘s] returns,” Laar said.

Even so, Russia Today reports that the situation remains tense although domestic election observers remain “cautiously optimistic.” Encouragingly, a ruling party candidate was forced to resign after pressuring local officials to vote for him although as a sign of how inflammatory the situation can be in the Caucasus, a prominent opposition leader reportedly threw a hammer at police who obstructed his path

And as the poll approaches, the political temperature shows no sign of cooling down. Despite assurances that these will be this country’s cleanest elections ever, trust between the parties remains minimal.

As a relatively clean vote would be an unprecedented and very significant for the region, it can only be hoped that the day progresses calmly and with few recorded and verified violations.