Death of Georgian Democracy with Parliamentary Election Results

David Patsatsia and Joni Simonishvili

The highly anticipated 2008 Georgian parliamentary elections were held as expected – and the results did not come as a surprise to anyone close to civial society. Moreover, the results were fixed  before the ballots were printed. The international organizations, with their preliminary conclusions, have basically sanctioned the widespread riggning of elections and announced how elections were sucessfully held and a step forward for a struggling democracy. 
Officially the US State Department has hailed the May 21 parliamentary elections a great success and Georgia’s one more step for Georgia on the Road to Democracy.
“We believe these elections are an improvement over the January 5 snap presidential vote,” Tom Casey, US State Department Spokesman stated. He explained that the US had already become acquainted with evaluations of various international observers, including OSCE monitoring group, and pointed out that the parliamentary elections were much improved and progressive and conducted without serious violations compared with the presidential elections.
 “First of all, of course, at the time of this announcement, the election results are not yet final. However, we'll certainly looking forward to seeing the final results and anticipate the work with the new government once it is formed,” Casey noted.
However, in spite of all the complimentary press, it is not really necessary to speak of the results. It is now obvious that the future 150-member Georgian Parliament is now stacked in the favor of the majority ruling National Party and this was done by “hook and crook.” The status quo is maintained and Georgians are less free now than anytime in the last 15 years.

Nonetheless, in retrospect, it was clear that most parties only wanted to overcome the 5 percent election barrier and enjoy all benefits that being a MP would bring. Not all the political parties made it across the barrier, which is already a moot issue. It is a sad commentary how the elections were pre-determined from the very onset.

Aside from vast administrative resources used, there was a PR campaign that rivals anything the ruling party could afford, even in developed countries. Georgian elections were well-funded. However, what escapes critical attention is how the powers of the state [police] were used to secure the outcomes.
 
Police could be seen both inside and outside of the polling stations on Election Day, and regardless of the written law; they acted openly with a sense of impunity.  It would be too simple to just ask if the police were in the rooms where ballot boxes were placed. They were parked in cars outside, standing in the doorways and carrying guns. If not the sheer presence of uniform police was not intimidating enough, then there was the matter of uniformed police at some stations, as in the case of voting precinct number 100 in Zugdidi voting district.

There are also serious allegations of how criminal elements were also used to intimidate voters and make sure that the results would show a clear-cut win for those candidates of the  ruling National Movement Party. This was done in combination with a tedious plan of purging many voters from the election lists, especially those whose political loyalty was not identical with the Ruling Majority party of president-elect Mikheil Saakashvili.
 

Now we can understand the value of voting in a police state and the role of police in a dictatorship. It is more than just screaming foul over a rigged election. The problem is that elections are part of a bigger plan of things.
 
Besides, the more pragmatic use of police was detected in the village of Obuta, western Georgia; an opposition activist was gunned down on Election Day, whether connected with elections or not is still debatable. However, many locals consider this incident too as having been politically-motivated.

There is little doubt in the minds of most local observers that the May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections were rigged. It is going to be interesting to watch the stand-down when various political parties provide their own accounting of the elections results – and perhaps they will try to settle the score when it comes to the actual results, and how the voting was carefully and illegally manipulated, which includes the exist poll results.

Shalva Natelashvili, Leader of Labor Party, said he does not trust the international election observation mission and said international observers were “lobbyists of Saakashvili’s regime.” “Their [international observers’] conclusions [on electoral process] have destroyed this country,” Natelashvili said in a late-night political talk show, Primetime, aired by Rustavi 2 TV on May 19.

“Presence of the police officers both inside and outside polling stations is prohibited by law, except one circumstance/condition, when the voting process and safety of voting documentation is in danger. But after averting danger they should immediately leave the building and its nearby territory. (Georgian Election Code, Paragraph 55,4)”. However, this was changed in the run-up to this most recent elections – and it is not clear as what was the justification.

The 2004 parliamentary elections were held under OSCE recommendations, but in 2008 they were totally ignored and with a sense of impunity. This represents a great step backwards on the road to democracy.  Part of the problem is related to the presence of police at polling stations, which is considered by both local and international observers as a breach of election laws and blatant voter intimidation.

In spite of such instances, recriminations and complaints, Central Election Commission Heads considered their presence as a normal occurence; they made little or no effort to conceal their physical presence.

 “The Georigan Human Rights Centre” – a local NGO, observed how police were deployed at almost all polling stations throughout Georgia.  It was even necessary in many instances to have to make it pass trough police corridors, both uniformed and ununiformed. Such instances has lead observers from the Georigan Human Rights Centre to  conclude that it is impossible to have free and fair elections under such circumstances.

Starting from early morning, even before the voting station was open, two observers noticed uniformed police waiting for the process to start. It was clear that even those out of uniform were members of police or security units as they were interacting and orders to those that were out of uniforms. Often the police were armed.

For example, police lieutenant Irakli Sajaia and police supervisor Zuriko Tskarozia were mobilized at the entrance of a polling station and when questioned about their presence they were totally sure that their presence there was legal. They claim that they were assigned to be there starting from 7 AM. They took  no notice when it was mentioned that this was a gross violation of the rights of voters – not allowing them to freely express their democratic right to vote.

Jina Kartozia, commission member of the Zugdidi Polling Station # 1 from the United Opposition, stated: “I appeared at the polling station at 7 AM and sortition started. I was assigned the responsibility of supervising of votes’ dropping into the ballot box. The number of voters 1419 in total, were added 430 prisoners on the voters list. Regardless, the law stipulated that the number of voters’ shouldn’t exceed 1,500 and it cannot be less than 20. However, in spite of the verbal complaints, pleadings, and threats to write a complaint, head of the precinct level election commission continued to ignore my protest. The member of the staff of the voting stations  was also refused a report of acceptance of the ballots and other voting materials.

She explains, the head of the local election commission would only say that I would have it soon. 
When I told him that I would write a complaint on it, he contacted regional commission and only then was handed a report of acceptance from outside the building through an open window. It came down to heated words, and I did not agree with him and told that I’ve seen everything, he began shouting and called police to come and arrest me. I was blamed for having tried to steal the report that I was in fact demanding from the beginning.

This one poll worker is but a small sample of what transpired on election day, and this one exchange of words and recriminations attracted the attention of representative of news media, including Rustavi 2 and Georgian Public Broadcasting. Also, there was a representative of the US Embassy present who took a report of the alleged violations at the 9th polling  station in Zugdidi. There are also alleged allegatons: voting twice, people moving from voting-station-to voting station “carrousel voting,” etc.”

Such incidents were observed by several NGO representatives and some written complaint were recorded.  It is debatable, however, if any action  will be taken on these complaints – and even so, if it would have made any difference in the voting outcomes in the so-called free and fair Georigan Parliamentary elections of 2008.