Saakashvili’s Party Wins Georgian Parliamentary Elections

In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, the United National Movement, to which President Mikheil Saakashvili belongs, won roughly 62% of the vote in last week’s parliamentary elections. The leading opposition group, called the United Opposition Council, trailed badly with around 15%. The foreign observers said the election was flawed but an improvement over previous balloting in Georgia. The UOC is having none of it, threatening to put 100,000 protesters in the streets and to boycott the new parliament.

In a statement, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that were “numerous allegations of intimidation, some of which could be verified.” The OSCE added that the “distinction between state activities and the government party's campaign was often blurred,” and there were “significant procedural shortcomings” with the vote counting.

Giorgi Targamadze, head of the opposition Christian Democratic Movement of Georgia, seized on this to say, “Unfortunately this election was in the same tradition as bad past elections.” Some of the misconduct he noted “was not an election problem but a serious crime.” The UOC’s Levan Gachechiladze complained that the UNM “are doing everything to falsify the polls.” He added that President Saakashvili’s rise to power during the “Rose Revolution” was an American inspired coup, “There will be no new Rose Revolution here because I don't like roses. The Rose Revolution and the democratic revolution is a farce -- this was a US experiment.”

The post-election protest on Wednesday, the threat of 100,000 in the streets, never materialized. That was the night Chelsea and Manchester United played the in the finals of the Champions’ League soccer tournament. As a result, 4,000 of the 100,000 turned up. This suggests that the opposition’s supporters aren’t all that passionate about the result. When an election is stolen, it’s easy to gather protesters. When it’s merely lost, there’s always soccer on TV.

This election matters a great deal to Georgia, obviously, but also to the NATO alliance. Georgia wants to join, and one of the preconditions is a healthy democratic political system. There are serious tensions between Russia and Georgia over the rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which have broken away from Georgia. If this election brings NATO membership closer, it also brings up another potential flashpoint between Russia and the West.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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