Georgia: Where to Draw the Line Between Candidate and Incumbent?
By Nina Akhmeteli: 01/04/08
Every day inside ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s campaign headquarters, located in Tbilisi’s cavernous, Soviet-era Philharmonic Hall, scores of supplicants sit writing out requests for help, or waiting for a response. To most of these individuals, many of them elderly, Saakashvili is still “the president.”
Mzia Gabidzashvili, a Tbilisi resident, said that she has been waiting for a reply to her letter and assistance from the election headquarters for several days. A mother of nine children, Gabidzashvili lives in a rented two-room apartment and hopes that the ruling party will help her to get a “roof” for her family. She says that she was forced to leave an earlier house – in an iron factory.
“I am not asking for an apartment. I am asking them to give me roof where I can live,” she said. Gabidzashvili’s actions and expectations underscore a problem during this Georgian election campaign. The inability of many potential voters to distinguish between Saakashvili and the government is one of the main faults cited by the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in its campaign survey published December 5.
“The joint statement issued by OSCE/ODIHR and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe after the 2006 local elections identified the lack of distinction between the ruling party and the government as one of the main problems. This problem has reappeared on a larger scale during the campaign for 2008 early presidential election,” the organization said in its report.
A second report issued by the watchdog’s Georgia office on December 27 found that several government ministers and other top officials, including the refugee and resettlement minister, the health minister, the minister of conflict resolution, appeared to have had a role in Saakashvili’s campaign. The watchdog group voiced concern about this practice.
Transparency International’s second report sought to intensify attention on the government’s use of administrative resources. The government undertook various regional social welfare initiatives launched by the government that were not included in the original 2008 budget, the watchdog agency said. The report alleges that vouchers were distributed in several regions, including Gori, Liakhvi, Tbilisi and Akhaltsikhe, by National Movement activists, while a campaign magazine published by the National Movement, Road to Victory, included a voucher for firewood. The magazine was distributed throughout Georgia and has emerged as one of the main controversies surrounding use of administrative resources.
“Though not always illegal, misusing administrative resources provides an unfair advantage to incumbent candidates, reducing the likelihood of fair and free elections,” TI said in a press statement released December 5.
The fact that free amusement park tickets included in the campaign publication was used by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association to argue that Saakashvili’s candidate registration should be revoked. The petition was denied by a Tbilisi court on December 22.
Despite the legal ruling, international organizations have expressed displeasure over the Georgian government’s use of its prerogatives. “The campaign environment has been soured by the allegations of use by Mr. Saakashvili [of] budgetary funds, unequal campaign conditions, intimidation, and vote buying,” the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election observation mission reports in its December 14-24 Interim report.
“Campaign activities of Mikheil Saakashvili have been notably more extensive than those of other candidates, particularly in Tbilisi,” the OSCE report added. It cited the fact that public buses in Tbilisi “have been covered with campaign posters for the outgoing president.”
Saakashvili campaign activists maintain the posters are paid advertisements. “Any candidate had a right to appeal to the (advertising) company for having an advertisement on a bus,” said Saakashvili spokesperson Davit Bakradze. “There are about 500 buses and we ordered advertising on about 200 buses.” At a January 4 press briefing, Bakradze added that the campaign would provide a full overview of its expenditures and donations after the elections, as required by law. Giving a number ahead of time for ad spending would be “inaccurate,” he said.
The Georgian government’s Inter Agency Task Force Group, headed by Justice Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili, has insisted the campaign is substantively competitive and provides equal opportunities for candidates. But some local political analysts counter that candidates have not enjoyed equal campaign conditions. One frequently heard charge is that Saakashvili continues to give instructions to government officials, even after resigning in late November as president to run for reelection. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Giorgi Khutsishvili, the head of the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation, said the lack of a “political culture” among voters, combined with the absence of televised debates among presidential contenders, means that many voters are likely to select a candidate based on personal qualities, rather than policy positions. Saakashvili, he added, stands to enjoy a high level of support from potential voters who see that initiatives he proposed shortly before resigning are already being implemented by the government.
Editor's Note: Nina Akhmeteli is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi. Elizabeth Owen, EurasiaNet’s Caucasus news editor, added reporting to this story.
