EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Georgia: Opposition Leaders Promise New Campaign to Redress Complaints

EURASIA INSIGHT

GEORGIA: OPPOSITION LEADERS PROMISE NEW CAMPAIGN TO REDRESS COMPLAINTS
Giorgi Lomsadze 1/14/08

As Mikheil Saakashvili looks forward to a second term as Georgia’s president, his political opponents are refusing to reconcile themselves with a defeat at the ballot box.

Late January 13, Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) released final results that showed Saakashvili to be the winner of the country’s special presidential election. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Saakashvili garnered 53.47 percent of votes, while his primary challenger, Levan Gachechiladze, received 25.69 percent, according to CEC figures.

The supposedly final tally could actually change, pending the outcome of lawsuits filed in connection with the alleged violations of election procedures. However, CEC head Levan Tarkhnishvili said January 13 that the potential shift in numbers would not be big enough to influence the outcome; any revision would not deprive Saakashvili of a majority of votes, thereby necessitating a run-off.

Saakashvili’s second inauguration as president is now scheduled for January 20. The next day, according to aides, he is planning to travel to Strasbourg to attend the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s winter session.

The day before the official results were announced, Saakashvili spoke publicly about his priorities for his second term. Topping the list is a desire to curb poverty. At a news conference, Saakashvili announced that his administration would propose legislation this winter to create low-interest business loans, to set up several agricultural processing plants and to raise pension benefits. "The work is in progress already, but within 50 days we will announce the actual plans and mechanism to achieve our goals," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili added that he intended to carry out a government reshuffle that would broaden the political opposition’s ability to influence policy. He also said that he would curtail foreign travel during his second term, and spend more time visiting rural areas of Georgia.

Saakashvili called a snap presidential election in an effort to defuse opposition ire over the government’s use of force to disperse protesters in Tbilisi on November 7. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. He likewise began employing conciliatory rhetoric toward the opposition when it became apparent -- following the release of exit poll data and preliminary election results -- that indicated he would be a first-round winner. None of the measures, however, have mollified the opposition.

Leaders of the nine-party coalition that supported Gachechiladze’s candidacy complain that the election was rigged, and they continue to assail Saakashvili, the CEC, the Georgian judicial system and Western election monitors, who concluded that the January 5 poll, while experiencing some irregularities, in general met the standards for a free-and-fair vote. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Gachechiladze’s supporters reserved some of their most venomous comments for Tarkhnishvili, the CEC head. "The Central Election Commission acted in violation of its own regulation by saying the results will not change even if the courts satisf[y] our complaints," Salome Zourabichvili, leader of the Georgia’s Way Party, told EurasiaNet.

The nine-party coalition also condemned the performance of Georgian courts. "We filed over 400 complaints nationwide but most of them have been turned down," Koba Davitashvili, another coalition leader, told a January 14 news conference.

Several hours before the final voting results were announced, tens of thousands of opposition supporters turned out for a rally at Tbilisi’s central Rose Revolution Square. At the rally, opposition leaders reiterated their insistence that Saakashvili did not win a majority of the vote, and therefore a run-off must be held.

"[W]e want criminal investigation launched against Central Election Commission chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili, we want courts to serve people’s interests, and we want Georgian Public Broadcaster be brought back to people!" Gachechiladze thundered.

Most of other presidential hopefuls threw their support behind Gachechiladze and joined the calls for a run-off vote. Some opposition leaders openly criticized Western diplomats and organizations, suggesting they had an interest in preserving the status quo. "[I]nternational observers and organizations � are thinking about stability in Georgia more than about democracy, but they are miscalculating the situation because in Georgia stability without democracy is not just possible," Republican Party leader David Usupashvil told EurasiaNet. He cautioned that Saakashvili "to think twice before holding a mass celebration at his inauguration."

Several hardliners within the coalition had tougher words for the international community. "The Americans should know better than to lecture us on democracy and on what to do," Gubaz Sanikidze said January 13 in comments broadcast on the pro-opposition Kavkasia television channel. Speaking on the same channel, Zviad Dzidziguri of the Conservative Party lambasted the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, characterizing most of the organization’s election observers as incompetent.

Other opposition leaders vowed not to recognize Saakashvili as president, if he does not submit to a run-off. "We’re not counting on the courts � we’re counting on street protests," the Civil Georgia website quoted Conservative Party leader Kakha Kukava as saying.

Commenting on the January 13 opposition rally, Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze, who has served as acting president during the election period, issued a call for moderation. In urging the opposition to open a dialogue with Saakashvili’s administration, Burjanadze said that "at the end of the day decisions should not be made based on how many demonstrations are held, and how many people show up at the demonstrations."

Opposition leaders say that a pre-condition for any dialogue with the Saakashvili administration is a total recount of the January 5 ballot, carried out in the presence of international observers. They also want all video footage, taken by cameras positioned inside polling stations, to be made public. "We will accept the results of such a recount, no matter who is the winner," Zourabichvili said. "If the votes are not recounted, we will start political disobedience."

During a meeting with journalists January 14, Saakashvili, who developed a reputation for impulsive political behavior during his first term, seemed unwilling to meet the opposition’s heated rhetoric with confrontational words of his own. Instead, he stuck to his message of inclusiveness, insisting that the January 5 vote was "the freest ever, and the most competitive ones in the entire history of Georgia," the Itar-Tass news agency reported. He also expressed the hope that a political crisis that has gripped Georgia now for over two months would begin to ease.

"As democracy develops in our country, the political dialogue will become broader and all the political groups will take a more active part in the country’s development," he said.

Editor�s Note: Giorgi Lomsadze is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi.

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