Tbilisi City Council Controversy Deals Blow to Political Opposition in Georgia

Tumult in the Tbilisi City Council has dealt a blow to the political opposition's hopes of challenging President Eduard Shevardnadze's authority. Allegations of improper conduct have tarnished the image of new Tbilisi City Council chairman Mikhael Saakashvili, one of the most prominent opposition figures in Georgia. The controversy surrounding Saakashvili's selection as council chairman has also opened up a rift among Shevardnadze's critics.

Saakashvili declared himself the winner of the City Council speakership contest November 4. However, legal experts contend that the vote features several irregularities. Charges and countercharges surrounding the speakership controversy even prompted a fistfight on the floor of the Georgian parliament November 5.

To become speaker of the 49-seat City Council, Saakashvili, who heads the National Movement-Democratic Front, needed a simple majority of 25 votes. The only other candidate for the speakership was Levan Gachechiladze of the New Rights Party. Saakashvili's National Movement controlled 13 council seats, and he also had the support of nine of the Labor Party's 11 council members. (Labor leader, Shalva Natelashvili refused to attend the Council's meeting and one Labor deputy had passed away). Thus to ensure victory, Saakashvili needed support from the United Democrats, a party headed by former Parliamentary Speaker Zurab Zhvania.

In addition, because not all Labor deputies were guaranteed to vote for Saakashvili, he also sought to reduce the quorum. Saakashvili, joined by Labor and United Democrats, excluded all other parties represented in the City Council from the Mandate Commission. That body, in turn, barred three deputies that had split with the Labor Party in August, two months after the local elections [for background see the Eurasia Insight archives], from voting in the speakership contest. Giga Bokeria, a representative of the Liberty Institute, a public interest organization in Tbilisi, characterized the Mandate Commission's action as a "violation of their [the three excluded deputies'] civil rights."

Fresh controversy developed at the time of the vote. Members from three parties holding seats in the council refrained from casting ballots. Also, three City Council members from Zhvania's United Democrats were at the same time members of the Georgian parliament, in apparent violation of Georgian legislation. "The Law on Membership in Parliament clearly prohibits membership in a second elected body by a Parliamentarian," one of Georgia's leading lawyers, David Usupashvili, explained. Two of the three United Democratic politicians in question ended up voting for Saakashvili.

In recent weeks, Saakashvili's and Zhvania's parties had explored closer ties with New Rights in an effort to establish a united opposition front against Shevardnadze in parliament. Saakashvili's election and the United Democrats' vote for him seriously damaged prospects for closer ties with New Rights. "Democrats and Nationalists chose to stand above the law, and we cannot stand with people for whom the rule of law is not paramount," New Rights deputy leader Pikria Chikhradze said. Despite Chikhradze's statement, Zhvania expressed hope in a recent television interview that discussions would continue among the opposition parties on forging a cohesive blueprint to defeat Shevardnadze's Citizens Union in the 2003 parliamentary elections.

In the meantime, it remains unclear if securing the Tbilisi City Council speakership will help or hurt Saakashvili's political fortunes. Some local political analysts suspect that the post might undermine Saakashvili's presidential ambitions. The fractious nature of the City Council ensures that Saakashvili will have difficulty using the speakership to establish a record of accomplishment. "Given the Council's very limited powers, along with the controversial, even illegitimate, nature of [the speakership] balloting