Tbilisi Election Law Fuels Georgia’s Political Opposition

New legislation concerning the election of Tbilisi's mayor has sparked a political debate over President Mikheil Saakashvili's commitment to democratic reform. Opposition leaders say the new law skews the electoral framework in a way that could help Saakashvili's National Movement maintain a tight grip on power.

Under the legislation, passed on July 1, the capital's mayor will be elected by the Tbilisi City Council, or Sakrebulo, rather than directly by voters. The City Council itself will be elected primarily under a winner-take-all system, rather than by the previous proportional system, which allotted council seats to political parties in accordance to their share of the vote. Under the new system, registered political parties may nominate two or three candidates in each of Tbilisi's 10 districts, depending on the size of the constituency. The party that receives the most votes in a particular district will automatically gain all of that district's seats in the City Council. This system covers 25 of the council's 37 seats. The remaining 12 seats will be allotted on a proportional basis to parties that receive at least 4 percent of the vote in all city districts.

Council members, in turn, will elect Tbilisi's mayor. Prior to passage of the new legislation, Tbilisi's mayor was a presidential appointee. The capital's incumbent mayor is 33-year-old Zurab Chiaberashvili, a Saakashvili ally who has held the post since April 2004.

Opposition politicians and some local non-governmental organization (NGO) activists have denounced the new legislation as anti-democratic. The chief intent of the new election system, some allege, is to make it easier for the National Movement, which holds a dominating majority in parliament, to control the country's political sphere. The New Rights Party, a leading Saakashvili critic, proposed a bill that would have provided for the direct election of Tbilisi's mayor, but it did not gain sufficient support in parliament. Opposition legislators were not on hand in parliament for the final vote on the Tbilisi election law. At the time the vote was taken, opposition MPs were participating at a rally staged to condemn the use of riot police to disperse a June 30 street protest. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Saakashvili defended the election law, saying it strengthens the political voice of elected local assemblies. The president, who himself served in 2002-2003 as City Council chairman, also indicated that the law would facilitate closer ties between the mayor, the council and the ruling party. During the run-up to the law's passage, Saakashvili scoffed at the New Rights Party's advocacy of a direct mayoral election. "Do not believe claims that a directly elected mayor of Tbilisi will be a strong figure," the president told reporters in a televised June 22 press conference. "No, he will be an extremely weak figure. Only a mayor that has a council behind him will be strong."

One Georgian non-governmental organization – the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy – reminded Saakashvili and his National Movement followers that they advocated direct elections as a tactic to break then-president Eduard Shevardnadze's stranglehold on power. "Only two years ago, opposition political forces [including the National Movement] considered the direct election of ... local government bodies as one of the most important democratic values," the NGO's statement said. "Unfortunately, electing the Tbilisi [m]ayor directly by the citizens of the capital is now unacceptable for today's revolutionary government."

[The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy receives funding from the Open Society-Georgia Foundation, which is part of the Soros foundations network. EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices of the Open Society Institute, also part of the Soros foundations network.]

Throughout the Caucasus, debate on the nature of local government, and responsibility for the election/selection of local officials, has intensified in recent months. For example, Armenia, citing the need for political unity, long resisted pressure to hold direct elections for the mayor of Yerevan. In June, however, Armenian officials relented, succumbing to the wishes of the Council of Europe on proposed constitutional amendments.

The Armenian example seemed to have little impact on the Georgian legislative debate. "We do not need anyone else's recommendations," Saakashvili declared during a televised interview in early June. "What did the leader of the free world [US President George W. Bush] say? Georgia is an example to everyone, a beacon." [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Georgian opposition parties, which have been largely fragmented during the Saakashvili presidency, have seized on the Tbilisi mayor issue as a rallying point. Saakashvili opponents now hope they have an opportunity to inflict political damage on the president. A recent poll conducted by the International Republican Institute and funded by the US Agency for International Development, showed that 89 percent of Tbilisi residents favor a direct mayoral election.

The New Rights, Labor, Republican and Conservative Parties have vowed to boycott by-elections scheduled to be held in Tbilisi expected this autumn. The Republican and Conservative Parties have also joined forces with 20 NGOs to lobby for a national referendum that would ask voters whether or not they want city mayors and regional governors to be directly elected. At least 200,000 signatures must be collected for the referendum effort to proceed.

Additional controversy surrounds the Central Elections Committee (CEC), the body that would be charged with conducting a referendum if the signature requirement is met. The CEC was recently restructured to include members that are nominally independent. But the opposition has charged that the chairman, Gia Kavtaradze, and most of the new members, have ties to the government, or the National Movement. The new members were selected by a commission headed by top presidential aide Gigi Ugulava, and approved by Saakashvili.

"Everyday, they [members of the National Movement] are creating something new and the only goal of these people is to stay in power forever," Irakli Iashvili, a Conservative Party member of parliament, commented on the boycott decision. "I am very afraid for the future."

One prominent Tbilisi analyst, however, countered that the opposition's concerns are misplaced. The real issue, he said, concerns the constitutional interpretation of executive authority. "The president is the only power in this country," said Devi Khechinashvili, president of the Partnership for Social Initiative. "It is his right - it is only logical - that he would fill the CEC with his people and dictate how to pick the mayor."

Some opposition leaders are expressing doubt that the CEC would allow a referendum to occur, even if the necessary number of signatures were gathered. "The whole election system is controlled by the government, the top management, the middle, the bottom, everybody," said Iashvili, "I am absolutely sure the referendum will not happen, but I am very much interested in how they will explain the refusal." National Movement loyalists, meanwhile, deny that they would use unconstitutional means to block a referendum.