A New President for Georgia, but No Peace with Opposition: January 21, 2008
As thousands of opposition supporters gathered a few kilometers away, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was inaugurated on January 20 for a second term in office with a call for Georgians to put aside political battles for a united war on poverty.
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Georgia: Opposition's Criticism of West Only Goes So Far: January 18, 2008
Despite sharp severe criticism of international observers' evaluation of Georgia’s January 5 vote, opposition leaders generally retain a Western orientation, many local political analysts believe.
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Public Television Reform: A Peace Offering for Georgia’s Opposition?: January 17, 2008
Plans to reorganize Georgia’s public television are being touted as a sign of a breakthrough in the continuing stand-off between the government and a nine-party opposition coalition.
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Georgia: Opposition Leaders Promise New Campaign to Redress Complaints: January 14, 2008
As Mikheil Saakashvili looks forward to a second term as Georgia’s president, his political opponents are refusing to reconcile themselves with a defeat at the ballot box.
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Trash Talking: Georgian NGO Activist Claims to Find Proof of Electoral Fraud in CEC Garbage Bin: January 11, 2008
Georgian opposition leaders are seizing on the alleged discovery January 11 of valid presidential election ballots in the trash outside of Central Election Commission (CEC) headquarters as supposed proof of fraud in the vote-counting process. While officials adamantly deny any wrongdoing, the announcement has energized opposition plans to hold a mass demonstration on January 13.
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Coup Charges Brought Against Presidential Candidate: January 10, 2008
Presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili has officially been charged with attempting to overthrow the government and other crimes, according to the Georgian General Prosecutor's office.
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French Officials to Decide Asylum Request of Georgia's Former Defense Minister: January 10, 2008
In a decision originally expected to dovetail with Georgia's January 5 presidential election, former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, once one of Mikheil Saakashvili's closest political allies, has been transferred from Germany to France, where his petition for asylum will be decided.
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Candidate Saakashvili Offers Opposition Cabinet Posts; Opposition Threatens Hunger Strike: January 9, 2008
With just four days to go before official election results must be announced for Georgia’s January 5 presidential vote, former president Mikheil Saakashvili and the opposition are both making moves to secure public support in an increasingly polarized political atmosphere.
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Post-Election, Opposition Candidate Claims Stolen Votes: January 8, 2008
With the clock ticking for finalization of Georgia’s presidential election results, opposition coalition candidate Levan Gachechiladze and supporters have launched a fire-and-brimstone campaign to have tens of thousands of votes for Mikheil Saakashvili nullified and a second round of voting declared.
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In Preliminary Results, Saakashvili Leads, but Opposition Candidate Claims Victory: January 6, 2008
Opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze declared his victory in Georgia's presidential polls on January 6, despite initial unofficial reports that incumbent Mikheil Saakashvili won the race by a healthy margin. While international observers have largely condoned the conduct of the election, opposition leaders maintain that the official results were falsified.
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International Observers: Georgia's Vote a "Triumphant Step" for Democracy: January 6, 2008
OIn a preliminary January 6 assessment, international observers gave conditional, but crucial approval to the conduct of Georgia's presidential election, a vote widely seen as a test of its democratic credentials.
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Georgia: Election Atmosphere Generally Calm, But Opposition Claims Irregularities: January 5, 2008
While opposition leaders in Georgia alleged widespread violations during the January 5 special presidential election, the electoral atmosphere was calm at voting stations in and around Tbilisi. Supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, who is seeking re-election, insisted that opposition leaders were trying to conjure up electoral irregularities where none existed in an attempt to justify a new round of political protests.
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Domestic Watchdogs: Georgia Vote "Peaceful," but Not Scandal-Free: January 5, 2008
Gone are the days of straightforward claims of ballot-box stuffing. On January 5, Georgian voters had to navigate through a conflicting and fragmented pile of alleged irregularities ranging from police intimidation tactics to a supposed assassination plot against one presidential candidate.
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Foreign Observers: A Guarantee for a Free and Fair Vote?: January 5, 2008
Amidst a steady stream of claims and counter-claims, the opposition and former President Mikheil Saakashvili appear to agree on one point alone about Georgia's January 5 elections: the importance of foreign observers.
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The "Other" South Ossetia Goes to the Polls: January 5, 2008
Georgia's presidential election campaign generally passed over government-controlled areas of South Ossetia, with posters and other political paraphernalia largely missing from towns. Still, as residents made their way through several inches of fresh snow to go to polling stations, there was little doubt about who was the favored candidate of a wide majority in the region - Mikheil Saakashvili.
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Saakashvili Ends Campaign with a Call to Focus on Future: January 4, 2008
In a scene at times reminiscent of a televised evangelical revival, Mikehil Saakashvili ended his campaign on January 4 in a packed Tbilisi sports arena with an appeal to voters to put aside pessimism about Georgiais troubled past and focus on a "strong Georgia" of the future.
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Opposition Already Crying Foul on Election Eve: January 4, 2008
Ballots have yet to be cast in Georgia's special presidential election, but opposition leaders are already girding for post-election protests, complaining that the voting will be rigged to enable Mikheil Saakashvili's re-election.
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Azeris in Kvemo-Kartli Region Support Saakashvili Re-Election Bid: January 4, 2008
In the Georgian region of Kvemo-Kartli, Mikheil Saakashvili seems destined to capture a large majority of votes in the January 5 special presidential election. His campaign posters far outnumber those of his main challenger, united opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze, and few people can be found in this predominately ethnic Azeri region that will say anything negative to about Saakashvili.
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Where to Draw the Line Between Candidate and Incumbent?: January 4, 2008
Every day inside ex-president Mikheil Saakashviliis 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."
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TV Ads Are the Battleground of Choice for Georgia's Presidential Candidates: January 3, 2008
As Georgia's presidential campaign enters its final stage, television advertising has become the weapon of choice for most of the race's seven presidential candidates.
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Georgia: Disgraced Media Baron to Remain in Presidential Race: January 3, 2008
Two days before Georgians go to the polls, media tycoon and alleged coup conspirator Badri Patarkatsishvili announced his intention to stay in the presidential race.
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Georgian Youth Activists Take Back Seat for 2008 Presidential Vote: January 2, 2008
In 2003, the Georgian youth movement Kmara (Enough) emerged as one of the headline-grabbers of the Rose Revolution. More than four years later, the buzz surrounding Georgian youth activists appears to have faded. Although young activists for both former President Mikheil Saakashvili and the opposition have worked for weeks on the campaign trail, political scientists believe that their impact on Georgia’s January 5 vote will be minimal.
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Georgia to Run Exit Polls for January 5 Vote: December 31, 2007
Plans to run an exit poll for Georgia's upcoming presidential elections and plebiscites are raising a fresh storm of political controversy less than a week before the January 5 vote. Key opposition candidates have denounced the poll project as biased in favor of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, while some local observers fear that the survey may only add to existing tensions.
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To Vote or Not? Abkhazia's Ethnic Georgians Decide: December 28, 2007
Among all of Georgia's campaign topics, few are more emotional than that of the ability of Georgians living in breakaway Abkhazia's predominantly ethnic Georgian district of Gali to vote in the upcoming January 5 elections. Tbilisi sees obstacles; separatist Sokhumi denies them. As often in Georgia's conflict zones, the reality appears to fall somewhere in-between.
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Tycoon Patarkatsishvili Withdraws from Presidential Race: December 27, 2007
One day after the television station he founded announced it was temporarily going off the air, controversial Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili has withdrawn his candidacy from Georgia's presidential race. The decision follows widespread media speculation that Patarkatsishvili would opt for such a move after the release of audio and video recordings that the government alleges indicate that he was planning to stage a coup after the January 5 vote.
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In Gori, Voter Lists Still Cause for Controversy: December 26, 2007
Georgia's voter lists are again setting off debate in one of the country's most politically sensitive regions, Shida Kartli. Updates to voter lists were supposed to be completed by December 22, but the wrangle over list management in this region, which neighbors the South Ossetia conflict zone, shows little sign of dying down soon.
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Georgian Government Claims Opposition Campaign Manager Plotted Coup: December 24, 2007
Less than two weeks before the presidential elections, the Georgian government and opposition presidential candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili are embroiled in a fresh finger-pointing scandal over an alleged coup plot and murder attempt.
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Reports Slam Georgian Government for Use of Force, Authoritarian Tendencies: December 21, 2007
In a stinging appraisal of former President Mikheil Saakashvili's administration, two international reports released this week charge that the Georgian government has recently shown increasing tendencies toward strong-arm tactics that put at risk its reputation as a democratic turnaround state. The government of Acting President Nino Burjanadze has not yet responded to the criticism.
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Georgia's Plebiscites: The Forgotten Vote?: December 20, 2007
While domestic and international audiences are busy scrutinizing Georgia's upcoming January 5 presidential vote, little attention has yet been paid to plebiscites planned for the same day on a parliamentary election date and Georgia's accession into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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A Chicken in Every Pot? Georgia’s Guria Residents Don’t Think So: December 18, 2007
In the ongoing battle over social welfare benefits for Georgian voters, the loudest salvos, until recently, have arguably been fired by former President Mikheil Saakashvili's campaign. But a December 18 statement by tycoon candidate Badri Patarkatsishvili that, if elected, he would spend $1.5 billion of his own money on such projects indicates that the battle is far from over. Nevertheless, despite the promised largesse, some residents in one poverty-stricken Georgian region argue that the pledged handouts come too little, too late.
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For Tycoon’s Campaign, Money Does the Talking: December 17, 2007
While six of Georgia's presidential candidates have kicked off cross-country campaign blitzes, one remains in the shadows. Citing security concerns, tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili has not yet returned to Georgia to launch his campaign. Instead, in his place, his reported plans for generous social welfare programs appear to be left to do the campaigning for him.
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Georgia: Imedi TV Returns, but Will Patarkatsishvili?: December 12, 2007
Imedi Television returned to Georgian airwaves on December 12, amid growing speculation over whether or not former Imedi co-owner Badri Patarkatsishvili will return to Tbilisi to launch his own presidential campaign.
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Campaign Finance a "Shadowy" Issue in Georgia’s Presidential Race: December 6, 2007
The television spots have begun to air, the campaign headquarters have set up shop and the signatures from supporters have been filed. But one question remains: How do Georgia’s presidential hopefuls plan on financing their campaigns?
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