EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Quiet Elections in Ajaria Prompt Worries of Tampering

EURASIA INSIGHT

QUIET ELECTIONS IN AJARIA PROMPT WORRIES OF TAMPERING
Daan van der Schriek 11/03/03

While allegations of misconduct and ineptitude marred Georgia’s November 2 parliamentary vote, the elections in the autonomous region of Ajaria proceeded with striking, almost suspicious, efficiency.

"Everything is perfect and we expect a good turnout," the head of precinct # 3 in Batumi, the regional capital told a EurasiaNet contributor. "You don’t doubt that, do you?"

Ajaria has long been viewed as a virtual political fiefdom of regional leader Aslan Abashidze. Accordingly, election returns in the region often deliver 90 percent of the vote or more in favor of candidates from Abashidze’s party, the Union for Georgia’s Democratic Revival. Observers widely believe such results are the product of official manipulation.

Preliminary election results appear to confirm that the pattern established during previous elections has held firm: Revival, according to the Central Election Commission, won over 8 percent of the vote, and will thus be allotted seats in the next parliament.

The last weeks of Georgia’s contentious parliamentary election campaign saw the emergence of a potential threat to Revival’s stranglehold on Ajaria’s political life. On October 23, partisans of Mikheil Saakashvili’s National Movement were involved in a confrontation with law-enforcement officers and Abashidze loyalists in Batumi. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Serious opposition did not emerge on election day. National Movement activists, along with representatives from other opposition parties, kept a low profile. "The National Movement knows there’s little to get for them here," said one international observer, who was in Batumi to monitor the vote "Aslan and Shevy [a nickname for Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze] are working together on this."

Giorgi Sepashvili, who edits the online news magazine Civil Georgia, said the notion that Abashidze and Shevardnadze had cooperated to ensure Revival’s continued presence in parliament was widely held. Many observers say that the pro-government election bloc, For a New Georgia, needs Revival’s support if it is to have any chance of hanging on to majority control over the next parliament. "Aslan Abashidze is only in opposition to Shevardnadze when the latter threatens his interests in Ajaria," Sepashvili said. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Most elections posters hanging around town belonged to Revival, and served to boost Abashidze’s authority. "We vote for the Revival Union whose leader is ASLAN ABASHIDZE," one poster announced. Most shops in Batumi displayed at least one Revival placard. In contrast, the few posters for the National Movement and other parties hung on lampposts and old walls, and did not identify parties with their leaders. This low-profile strategy indicated that opposition leaders viewed more direct confrontation with Abashidze as unwise.

"It has been a deliberate choice," a spokesperson for the New Rights in Batumi said. "We’ve chosen to hold a campaign close to the voters, to have eye-to-eye contact with them rather than putting posters on walls." The spokesperson stressed that authorities had given the New Rights no trouble. But according to another New Rights representative, the party muted its campaign specifically in order to avoid trouble. This second spokesperson insisted that the New Rights enjoyed healthy support in Batumi. But she acknowledged that she would have to wait until after officials results were released to see whether this support would be registered, or whether regional officials would erase evidence of it through ballot tampering.

"The real election [in Ajaria] begins after 8 pm [on November 2]," she said, referring to the hour when polls close.

At voting precincts visited by a EurasiaNet contributor, affairs seemed orderly. All precincts used transparent ballot boxes. None had called in uniformed police, and there seemed to be no more officers or militia members on the streets than usual. New Rights spokespeople, like opposition members in nearly every Georgian precinct, complained of problems with voter lists.

In part, this calm reflected many voters’ belief that casting a ballot would be a pointless exercise. "I won’t vote. My vote doesn’t matter," said Giorgi, 24, from Kobuleti, north of Batumi. "We don’t have a democracy in Georgia and nothing will change."

Editor�s Note: Daan van der Schreik has reported from throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia. He was in Batumi the parliament election.

The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the position of the Open Society Institute and are the sole responsibility of the author or authors.