______________________________
Thousands of opposition supporters flooded the centre of Georgia‘s capital of Tbilisi to celebrate as exit polls put their Georgian Dream coalition ahead in Monday’s crucial parliamentary elections. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire who leads Georgian Dream, said in a speech broadcast on an opposition TV channel, “We’ve won! The Georgian people have won!” However, with the official results yet to be announced, the opposition’s celebrations could prove premature. President Mikhail Saakashvili, who leads the ruling United National Movement (UNM), admitted on state television that Georgian Dream was ahead in the vote in Tbilisi, but said his coalition was winning convincingly in the provinces, saying, “But this doesn’t mean we’ll split the country between Tbilisi and the regions. We’re all citizens of Georgia and we must stand side-by-side”.
The atmosphere among the growing crowd on Tbilisi’s Freedom Square is euphoric, with chants of “Georgia.” Policing is virtually non-existent, although a drone is hovering above the crowd. However, the run up to today’s voting has been fraught with tension and fears of violence. Early on Tuesday, opposition media claimed Special Forces officers forcibly removed ballots from a number of polling stations in central Georgia’s Khashuri District. Maestro TV said officers “used tear gas and fired rubber bullets” at one polling station as they removed a ballot box in order to “rewrite” the results. The channel showed a crowd of opposition supporters heading toward polling stations in the district. Transparency International Georgia, an NGO that monitors political corruption, later confirmed the reports.
Levan Chochua, a middle-aged Georgian Dream supporter on Freedom Square warned, “There’ll be trouble if Saakashvili tries to steal the vote. Saakashvili says we’re for Russia, but we’re just for a normal life. He’s built a façade of European democracy in the centre of Tbilisi, but most people never see all this”, as he gestured at the impressive buildings that ring the square.
These elections saw Saakashvili face his most serious political threat since coming to power in 2003 as the result of a revolt against a régime led by former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The polls took on particular importance in the light of a law passed in 2010 that transfers the majority of the president’s executive powers to the prime minister. The law comes into force from 2013 when Saakashvili’s second term ends. Whoever wins Monday’s polls will be able to appoint the prime minister. Saakashvili’s UNM enjoyed a healthy lead in opinion polls until last month, when opposition channels aired explicit footage of male inmates at a Tbilisi jail being sexually assaulted with broom handles. The videos triggered large protests across Georgia and widespread anger at Saakashvili and the UNM and saw a reported groundswell of support for the opposition.
Dark Days
American-educated lawyer Saakashvili, 44, attempted to portray Monday’s elections as a choice between continued “modernisation” and a return to what he dubbed the “dark days” of the 1990s, when the former Soviet republic lay within Moscow‘s sphere of influence. Ivanishvili, 56, and his supporters accused Saakashvili of running a dictatorship and say his policies have brought Georgia… a country of 4.5 million that’s an important transit route for oil and gas to the West… to the brink of disaster, not least by leading it into a ruinous 2008 war with its vast neighbour, Russia. Whilst staunch American-ally Georgia earned plaudits from the World Bank for its far-reaching business reforms, the opposition says it’s done nothing to alleviate poverty, and that the true number of unemployed is far above the official figure, which hovers around 15 percent.
However, critics say Georgian Dream is little more than a rag-tag alliance of parties with very little in common and that Ivanishvili will be hard-pressed to suppress the more nationalist and xenophobic elements of his coalition should it come to power. Saakashvili painted his ultra-wealthy rival, who made much of his money in Russia in the 1990s, as a Kremlin stooge seeking to “return Georgia to Russia’s imperial space”. Ivanishvili has dismissed these allegations as “laughable”. Like the UNM, Georgian Dream also states NATO and EU membership among its priority policies, although the coalition also pledged to improve relations with Russia.
Post-Poll Fears
On Monday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the elections are a “litmus test” of Georgia’s democratic credentials. American and European officials called for transparent and peaceful elections, and over 400 poll observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are in the country. Nevertheless, monitors warned last week that the build-up to the crucial polls were “confrontational and rough”. Thomas De Waal, a Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, told RIA Novosti, “These elections are the first serious test of Georgia’s capacity to hold a democratic election process which can lead to a peaceful transition of power at the ballot box. If the country can manage to absorb a two-party system without open confrontation it will be a big step forward”. The head of Georgia’s influential Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilya Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili, also urged honest elections, and carried out a pre-election blessing of Tbilisi last week.
From Penguins to Politics
Ivanishvili backed Saakashvili in the aftermath of Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution, even funding, he said, the new president’s inauguration. For years, the businessman showed little interest in being directly involved in politics, preferring instead to finance charity projects and breed penguins at his mansion in western Georgia. However, the enigmatic tycoon dropped a bombshell into Georgian politics last October when he announced that he would use some of his vast fortune of 6.4 billion USD (200 billion Roubles. 5 billion Euros. 4 billion UK Pounds)… equivalent to around half the country’s GDP… to create an alternative to the UNM, which has been in power for the past eight years.
The authorities responded by stripping him of his Georgian passport in 2011 after revelations that he’s also a French citizen. Ivanishvili said that he’ll take advantage of a law allowing EU nationals who have lived in Georgia for more than five years to hold public office to become prime minister if his opposition coalition triumphs at Monday’s polls. He said that he’ll leave office after “one or two years” if his bid for power is successful. Ivanishvili refused to vote at Monday’s polls in protest at what he said was the authorities “distortion” of the constitution, and said that the law on EU nationals was approved especially for him to rescue Georgia’s international image.
Ties With Russia
Georgia has had no diplomatic relations with Russia since 2008, when it fought and lost a five-day war with its powerful neighbour over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Russia subsequently recognised the sovereignty of South Ossetia and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia. However, a mere handful of countries have so far followed suit. Whilst Russia hasn’t backed either side at the polls, there’s great personal antipathy between Saakashvili and President Putin, who said in the aftermath of the South Ossetia conflict that he would like to “hang him [Saakashvili] by the balls”. Last week, EU military monitors said that Russian troops were building up at the administrative border with South Ossetia and that a Russian helicopter had briefly landed on Georgian-controlled territory. Moscow said the helicopter had touched down in Georgia “by mistake”. A major military exercise carried out last month by Russia in the North Caucasus also unsettled Tbilisi, although Moscow says the drills were planned well before the announcement of the 1 October elections.
2 October 2012 (MSK)
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/world/20121002/176345347.html
Voices from Russia 
Georgia Opposition Celebrate Election “Victory”
Tags: Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia, Georgian Dream, Mikheil Saakashvili, political commentary, politics, poster, Russia, Russian, Saakashvili, South Ossetia, Tbilisi, United National Movement
______________________________
Thousands of opposition supporters flooded the centre of Georgia‘s capital of Tbilisi to celebrate as exit polls put their Georgian Dream coalition ahead in Monday’s crucial parliamentary elections. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire who leads Georgian Dream, said in a speech broadcast on an opposition TV channel, “We’ve won! The Georgian people have won!” However, with the official results yet to be announced, the opposition’s celebrations could prove premature. President Mikhail Saakashvili, who leads the ruling United National Movement (UNM), admitted on state television that Georgian Dream was ahead in the vote in Tbilisi, but said his coalition was winning convincingly in the provinces, saying, “But this doesn’t mean we’ll split the country between Tbilisi and the regions. We’re all citizens of Georgia and we must stand side-by-side”.
The atmosphere among the growing crowd on Tbilisi’s Freedom Square is euphoric, with chants of “Georgia.” Policing is virtually non-existent, although a drone is hovering above the crowd. However, the run up to today’s voting has been fraught with tension and fears of violence. Early on Tuesday, opposition media claimed Special Forces officers forcibly removed ballots from a number of polling stations in central Georgia’s Khashuri District. Maestro TV said officers “used tear gas and fired rubber bullets” at one polling station as they removed a ballot box in order to “rewrite” the results. The channel showed a crowd of opposition supporters heading toward polling stations in the district. Transparency International Georgia, an NGO that monitors political corruption, later confirmed the reports.
Levan Chochua, a middle-aged Georgian Dream supporter on Freedom Square warned, “There’ll be trouble if Saakashvili tries to steal the vote. Saakashvili says we’re for Russia, but we’re just for a normal life. He’s built a façade of European democracy in the centre of Tbilisi, but most people never see all this”, as he gestured at the impressive buildings that ring the square.
These elections saw Saakashvili face his most serious political threat since coming to power in 2003 as the result of a revolt against a régime led by former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. The polls took on particular importance in the light of a law passed in 2010 that transfers the majority of the president’s executive powers to the prime minister. The law comes into force from 2013 when Saakashvili’s second term ends. Whoever wins Monday’s polls will be able to appoint the prime minister. Saakashvili’s UNM enjoyed a healthy lead in opinion polls until last month, when opposition channels aired explicit footage of male inmates at a Tbilisi jail being sexually assaulted with broom handles. The videos triggered large protests across Georgia and widespread anger at Saakashvili and the UNM and saw a reported groundswell of support for the opposition.
Dark Days
American-educated lawyer Saakashvili, 44, attempted to portray Monday’s elections as a choice between continued “modernisation” and a return to what he dubbed the “dark days” of the 1990s, when the former Soviet republic lay within Moscow‘s sphere of influence. Ivanishvili, 56, and his supporters accused Saakashvili of running a dictatorship and say his policies have brought Georgia… a country of 4.5 million that’s an important transit route for oil and gas to the West… to the brink of disaster, not least by leading it into a ruinous 2008 war with its vast neighbour, Russia. Whilst staunch American-ally Georgia earned plaudits from the World Bank for its far-reaching business reforms, the opposition says it’s done nothing to alleviate poverty, and that the true number of unemployed is far above the official figure, which hovers around 15 percent.
However, critics say Georgian Dream is little more than a rag-tag alliance of parties with very little in common and that Ivanishvili will be hard-pressed to suppress the more nationalist and xenophobic elements of his coalition should it come to power. Saakashvili painted his ultra-wealthy rival, who made much of his money in Russia in the 1990s, as a Kremlin stooge seeking to “return Georgia to Russia’s imperial space”. Ivanishvili has dismissed these allegations as “laughable”. Like the UNM, Georgian Dream also states NATO and EU membership among its priority policies, although the coalition also pledged to improve relations with Russia.
Post-Poll Fears
On Monday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the elections are a “litmus test” of Georgia’s democratic credentials. American and European officials called for transparent and peaceful elections, and over 400 poll observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are in the country. Nevertheless, monitors warned last week that the build-up to the crucial polls were “confrontational and rough”. Thomas De Waal, a Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, told RIA Novosti, “These elections are the first serious test of Georgia’s capacity to hold a democratic election process which can lead to a peaceful transition of power at the ballot box. If the country can manage to absorb a two-party system without open confrontation it will be a big step forward”. The head of Georgia’s influential Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilya Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili, also urged honest elections, and carried out a pre-election blessing of Tbilisi last week.
From Penguins to Politics
Ivanishvili backed Saakashvili in the aftermath of Georgia’s 2003 Rose Revolution, even funding, he said, the new president’s inauguration. For years, the businessman showed little interest in being directly involved in politics, preferring instead to finance charity projects and breed penguins at his mansion in western Georgia. However, the enigmatic tycoon dropped a bombshell into Georgian politics last October when he announced that he would use some of his vast fortune of 6.4 billion USD (200 billion Roubles. 5 billion Euros. 4 billion UK Pounds)… equivalent to around half the country’s GDP… to create an alternative to the UNM, which has been in power for the past eight years.
The authorities responded by stripping him of his Georgian passport in 2011 after revelations that he’s also a French citizen. Ivanishvili said that he’ll take advantage of a law allowing EU nationals who have lived in Georgia for more than five years to hold public office to become prime minister if his opposition coalition triumphs at Monday’s polls. He said that he’ll leave office after “one or two years” if his bid for power is successful. Ivanishvili refused to vote at Monday’s polls in protest at what he said was the authorities “distortion” of the constitution, and said that the law on EU nationals was approved especially for him to rescue Georgia’s international image.
Ties With Russia
Georgia has had no diplomatic relations with Russia since 2008, when it fought and lost a five-day war with its powerful neighbour over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Russia subsequently recognised the sovereignty of South Ossetia and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia. However, a mere handful of countries have so far followed suit. Whilst Russia hasn’t backed either side at the polls, there’s great personal antipathy between Saakashvili and President Putin, who said in the aftermath of the South Ossetia conflict that he would like to “hang him [Saakashvili] by the balls”. Last week, EU military monitors said that Russian troops were building up at the administrative border with South Ossetia and that a Russian helicopter had briefly landed on Georgian-controlled territory. Moscow said the helicopter had touched down in Georgia “by mistake”. A major military exercise carried out last month by Russia in the North Caucasus also unsettled Tbilisi, although Moscow says the drills were planned well before the announcement of the 1 October elections.
2 October 2012 (MSK)
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/world/20121002/176345347.html