Georgia: A Clean Vote on May 21?

It has been billed as a test of Georgia's democratic credentials. But while Georgian officials have vowed that the May 21 parliamentary elections will be free and fair, an array of problems have surfaced in the days leading up to the polling, according to election observers.

For the government, the stakes are huge. At issue most immediately is whether or not the election will advance Georgia's campaign to be offered a Membership Action Plan from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this December. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In a televised speech on the afternoon of May 20, outgoing Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burjanadze appealed to local government officials and police to "create all the necessary conditions to ensure that each citizen has a possibility to make a free choice."

Violators of election laws should be "strictly held responsible before the law," while election commission officials should conduct a thorough examination of reported irregularities, she stressed, according to a translation provided by online news service Civil Georgia.

Burjanadze herself, however, will not be running for reelection with the ruling United National Movement for a Victorious Georgia. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Her remarks, however, largely echo similar recent appeals by President Mikheil Saakashvili, head of the United National Movement, and other leading governing party figures.

Nonetheless, one of the most controversial points for Georgia's elections – media coverage and reported bias – was not addressed in the parliamentary speaker's speech. In a nation of devout television viewers, news broadcasts carry particular weight, and allegations of irregularities have been championed by the opposition.

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."

Some television journalists also appear to be having difficulty making that distinction. On May 1, the popular Rustavi-2 talk show PrimeTime broadcast a series of video profiles for National Movement party list candidates. The talk show is a joint project between the PrimeTime Analytical and Consulting Group and a television studio, TBC TV.

The video clips were part of a PrimeTime project that gave each political party taking part in the elections 90 minutes to campaign on-air.

EurasiaNet has learned, however, that the May 1 PrimeTime clips were created on commission by a TBC TV producer, Davit Gersamaia, for the advertising company that is handling the National Movement's promotional campaign for the elections.

Gersamaia, who works as a freelance television producer for various clients in addition to his regular job at TBC TV, declined to comment about an apparent conflict of interest between his work for the National Movement, and his job for the PrimeTime talk show. "I have my own production team at the TBC TV studio," he said. "If someone pays me money, I work for them." TBC TV studio could not be reached for comment.

Levan Bakhia, a partner at Sarke, the agency that handles the bulk of the National Movement's promotional work, states that his firm hired 15 teams of producers, directors, videographers and other film professionals to make clips for the party, including for the PrimeTime show. "These groups were made up of all different people; we hired independent film makers, directors.