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Nino Burjanadze-MP through Majority System of the Canceled Elections

March 17, 2008

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

“The government remembers about voters only during elections and it is self-evident. This woman [Nino Burjanadze] does not care about the people, she never asks us about our problems. However, during the pre-election campaign she promised us many things but it has all been in vain. Shame on her,” it is an extract from the interview with seventy-four-year-old Natela Gorgadze. Almost every resident of Kutaisi shares grief because of that woman.

Today, the deeds of the chairperson of the Georgian Parliament to Georgia and her native city are much spoken about in Kutaisi and beyond it. V oters blame Nino Burjanadze for negligence in her office. However, there are people who will never be able to payback the chairperson of the parliament for the deed she has done for them. “Everybody knows that Burjanadze has found jobs for her relatives, neighbors, friends and even some of her class-mates. I remember once, her meeting with local people continued in the restaurant and I was among the local public officials at the party. One of the people there looked around the table and joked the all classmates were there; only their teacher was not at the table,” recalled Vladimer Nakashidze, member of the Kutaisi Municipality Council from the Republic Party.

The joke of the public official was close to the reality. Burjanadze’s clan now occupied quite high positions in Kutaisi, and they secured these positions as soon as she became a MP. In the last 3-4 years, Burjanadze’s cousin Irakli Beradze has been the head of Public Service Department of the Local Government; Kakha Dalakishvili, the classmate of the chairperson of the parliament, has been the head of Infrastructure Service Department. Fikria Beradze, second cousin is the head of the Imereti Branch of the Agency for Social Subsidies. As for the local office of the majority MP, and the local budget pays 30 thousand GEL to keep it is headed by Ketevan Natsvlishvili, another classmate of Nino Burjanadze. Natsvlishvili is also a deputy chairperson of the Kutaisi Election Precinct # 53.

Everybody in Kutaisi speaks that despite many people resigned from the position of Kutaisi Mayor the leading public officials in the city administration are people who are close to Burjanadze. As for the majority membership of the parliament, as it has already been cleared up, it does not legally exist.

Several days ago, one of the leaders of the United Opposition, Koba Davitashvili, called Nino Burjanadze an appendix of the Georgian Parliament. The larger part of society might have not guessed the real meaning of the statement when Davitashvili used similar epithets for the second person in Georgia.

Human Rights Center’s Kutaisi Office looked through the process of the parliamentary elections that was held on November 2 in 2003. Although, representatives of the Election Precinct # 53 categorically deny speaking about the situation at the time, there is truth as has been confirmed by the decision of the Kutaisi Regional Court.

“The results of the parliamentary elections in Kutaisi on November 2 2003 were appealed against at the Court. The suit was prepared by several opposition parties. The court annulled the final record of the elections at Kutaisi Election Precinct # 53. The election commission was ordered to count the votes again but they could not indicate their conclusions in the final record because opposition parties had seriously suppressed them. The Precinct Election Commission avoided the responsibilities and all materials were sent to the Central Election Commission. The CEC had to prepare a new normative act; though it did not because it chose to not count the results of the Kutaisi Precinct for a second time. The final record of the Kutaisi Precinct Elections was inserted into the final Georgian Record and allowed to stand. That means they announced as final results a vote count that had been set aside by a court order,” said Vladimer Nakashidze.

The results of the parliamentary elections on November 2 2003 in Kutaisi that were annulled were not replaced with new results. Thus, Burjanadze does not have legal right to be an MP. The results of that time elections are still unsettled.

“In most cases majority MPs are those who have “sacks full of money”. Burjanadze won the elections because of her money.  During the pre-election campaign she visited Kutaisi everyday and she did not refuse anything to Kutaisi residents. She claimed she knew the city and the problems there; she promised to do her best to support locals. However, her promises have never been realized,” residents of Kutaisi cannot help holding back their discontent.

Here people still remember the problems they encountered when the fees on public transport increased. During three months the fee was increased without any normative act enacted by the Kutaisi Municipality Council. Regarding the situation, local people appealed to their MP several times and Burjanadze promised them assistance. However, all their efforts were in vain. The old tariff on the public transport remains the same.

“We know Nino Burjanadze from TV only. We have not been honored to meet her in person. In the past when she was a newly elected MP, she used to arrive in her office in Kutaisi. People managed to meet her had many difficulties. However, I cannot recall any concrete case when she resolved the problem positively. She always claimed that she did not have complete information about particular problems and she needed to investigate it thoroughly. The point is that she was not interested in our problems and that’s why she did not know about it in the first place. If not so, an MP should be fully aware about the situation in her own city,” said Nikoloz Tofuridze, a voter from Kutaisi.

Nevertheless there are people who speak about the deeds of Burjanadze. The topic of transfers is associated with Nino Burjanadze. In 2004-2005 Kutaisi received 13 million GEL as a transfer. In 2006 the transfer amounted to 15 million GELS and in 2007 it was 11 million GELS. “All these transfers were based on pure subjective principles and of course, Burjanadze had been involved to a great degree in transferring that money,” said Kakha Gvantseladze, the head of the Kutaisi branch of the “Georgian Young Economists Association”. However, opposition parties have different opinions about the situation. “Batumi, Borjomi and other cities do not have Burjanadze but they also receive transfers. Thus, we cannot see any deeds of Burjanadze when it comes to the city receiving money.”

All in all, people have different opinions about the chairperson of the Georgian Parliament. Finally, one part of Kutaisi residents think thinks that Nino Burjanadze visits her native city only where there are presentations; or when she was active pre-election campaign for President Mikheil Saakashvili. Today, there is still a high barrier between her and Kutaisi residents. The phone of the Kutaisi office of the majority MP is cut off because of an unpaid bill.

 

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