A new website offers an alternative to the humdrum personality-driven politics on Central Asia’s rocky “Island of Democracy.”
On September 27, the Dutch environmental NGO Milieukontakt International launched vybirai.org. The site offers visitors easy-to-use tools to compare political parties’ promises before Kyrgyzstan’s October 10 parliamentary polls.
According to Wouter Pronk, the project’s senior manager, the site was modelled on previous Milieukontakt initiatives that allowed voters to make green choices by contrasting the environmental policies of parties in European countries. Kyrgyzstan’s vybirai.org – meaning choose.org in Russian – differs in that it focuses on all aspects of a party’s campaign pledges, from education and the economy to foreign policy.
Though a noble attempt, the site is unlikely to foster a change in the way campaigns are conducted, at least this time around.
At a launch event, Pronk admitted there were faults with the initiative, but said that Milieukontakt and local partner organizations had “proceeded from the assumption that parties take their manifesto promises seriously.” The comment produced a ripple of laughter among the assembled.
Transparency International claims that a movie promotion campaign run by the Tbilisi mayor's office doubles as "hidden political advertising" for Mayor Gigi Ugulava's bid for office in the Georgian capital's May 30 mayoral elections.
The initiative “Kinomania+5” offers students five-lari ($2.70) discounts on tickets to Tbilisi movie theaters until July. One small snag -- the number five is also the ballot number for the ruling United National Movement, which Ugulava represents.
The Central Election Commission will hold a hearing on the tickets on May 13.
TI names alleged cases of intimidation of voters and opposition activists, particularly outside Tbilisi, as "the most alarming matter" in the run-up to Georgia's local elections. Reported instances range from threatening to draft male voters into the army if they do not vote for the United National Movement to threatening an opposition candidate with arrest if he does not drop out of the race.
[Transparency International receives funding from the Open Society Institute, which also finances EurasiaNet.org through its Central Eurasia Project.]
