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.]
Tbilisi mayoral candidate Zviad Dzidziguri has a gun and is not afraid to use it. The Conservative Party leader says he pulled out his gun and fired several shots into the air on May 6 to defend himself from poster-bearing supporters of his rival, Mayor Gigi Ugulava of the ruling United National Movement.
Conservative Party loyalists and government supporters blame each other for starting the brawl. The Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation. “If such provocations repeat themselves, I will do the same,” Dzidziguri declared.
Mayor Ugulava described the incident as an attack on the United National Movement and called on all political groups competing for Georgia's key municipal office to exercise restraint during the campaign season.
But after a May 6 smash-up between protesters and police, popular fears persist that the campaign may descend into bare-knuckle confrontation.
What room, if any, will be given to ideas may be determined this weekend during televised candidate debates on Georgian Public Broadcasting co-financed by USAID. Aside from Ugulava and Dzidziguri, the debates will feature Alliance for Georgia leader Irakli Alasania, ex-energy boss Giorgi Chanturia for the Christian-Democratic Movement, and beer magnate Gogi Topadze of the Industrialists Party.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili hopes that voters in Tbilisi’s May 30 mayoral election will not let a pair of pouty lips sway them from voting for the ever-bustling, ever-loyal Mayor Gigi Ugulava.
After giving a televised endorsement for Ugulava on April 26, Saakashvili warned voters not to fall into the honey trap that is Irakli Alasania, the handsome, full-lipped, 36-year-old leader of the moderate opposition bloc Alliance for Georgia and Ugulava’s main rival.
“We can vote for candidates [other than Ugulava], who pout their pretty lips and say ‘Look, I am so pretty,’” the comparatively thin-lipped Saakashvili told Rustavi-2 TV. But if pouty lips matter, the president went on saying, Tbilisi residents might as well elect as mayor Nanka Kalatozishvili, the popular hostess of the Georgian game show equivalent of Fox News' The Moment of Truth.
Even though his lips are a popular topic of discussion, Alasania hasn't sought to capitalize on the one natural advantage he seems to have over his competitors. Rather, he roughly emulates Obama’s presidential election slogans with the think-positive motto “We Will Bring Change.”
Ugulava knows a thing or two about appearances, too. His low-carb weight-loss scheme has long been popular in Tbilisi under the name of the Ugulava Diet.
