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De-facto Border with Akhalgori to Be Closed for Three Days for the Presidential Elections

October 25, 2013
Mari Otarashvili, Akhalgori

“Governments never paid attention to us… I do not know whom to vote. I really do not know. Maybe, I will vote for Margvelashvili. At least he has not done anything wrong in the past,” a resident of Akhalgori district told humanrights.ge. He has not left the district since August of 2008. Other residents of Akhalgori, who have permanently lived in the Ksani Gorge, support the presidential candidate Margvelashvili. 

However, permanent residents of Akhalgori district do not know how to vote on October 27. As MIA reported, supposedly, they will not have chance to go to polling stations because on Friday, October 25, the de-facto border will be closed before Monday. Consequently, nobody will leave Akhalgori on the Election Day to take part in the polls unless they manage to cross the de-facto border before. 

There is no pre-election turmoil in the Akhalgori district. No election billboards or posters are placed there. We cannot hear any election agitations in the district. Nobody gives out booklets either. There is only 40 kilometers between Tbilisi and Akhalgori district, but when you arrive there, you feel yourself in completely different world.

However, both Akhalgori and Tskhinvali district residents are much interested who will become the President of Georgia. Akhalgori district residents are waiting for the new president because they hope he/she will pay more attention to the people left in the occupied territories not to feel isolated from the country like during Saakashvili’s presidency. When United National Movement was in power, those, who stayed in Akhalgori, were declared betrayers. The government assisted only those residents of Akhalgori, who abandoned their homes and moved either to Tserovani or to Tsilkani or Prezeti.

Tskhinvali population is also interested in the election process and its results. “We want everything to finish in peace. Disorder in Georgia will impact us too. So, we carefully watch the ongoing process,” a representative of the South Ossetia’s de-facto government said in private talks though preferred to keep his name anonymous. 

Only those residents of Akhalgori will participate in the elections, who live in the IDP settlements in Tserovani, Tsokani and Prezeti. In addition to that, as mentioned above, those Akhalgori residents, who still hold Georgian IDs and managed to cross the de-facto border before it was locked, will have chance to take part in the polls. In both cases, the IDPs shall provide IDP card and ID to polling stations. 

In Tserovani IDP settlement, IDPs more support Burjanadze and Bakradze than Margvelashvili. Burjanadze arrived in Tserovani twice; as for Bakradze he is the candidate of the United National Movement – of the most loved political party in the settlement.

“Why should not Tserovani IDPs like Saakashvili and UNM?! Everybody has house in Akhalgori. They have houses both Akhalgori and in Tserovani too! They were not displaced at all. Misha [Saakashvili] gave them second houses! When they travel to Tserovani from Akhalgori, they say they are going to the city. Misha helped them to move to the city and how they should not like Misha and his party?!” Akhalgori resident said.

Akhalgori district residents smile at one of Burjanadze’s pre-election promises to the IDPs from Akhalgori, which she mentioned during her meeting in Tserovani. “Of course it is funny! She promised them - I will assist you to return to your homes if I become president. Who wants to return to Akhalgori?! They received renovated houses with furniture in Tserovani; they live in comfort and have holiday homes in the district too. They do not want to return here because whenever they want to, they can come here,” a woman from Mosabruni village in Akhalgori district said.

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