Georgia: Voting Begins
The BBC reports that voting has begun in a snap presidential election in Georgia called after opposition protests turned violent and a state of emergency was declared in the former Soviet republic. Georgians are also taking part in a referendum to determine when the country’s parliamentary election should be held.
According to the report, albeit somewhat controversially, many opinion polls show the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili leading the pack of seven candidates in the vote, but it is uncertain whether victory can be attained in a first round.
The polls also suggest that Mr Saakashvili’s closest rival will be Levan Gachechiladze, the wine businessman and independent MP chosen by the main opposition bloc as their candidate.
At a polling station in the capital, Tbilisi, Nodar Zardiashvili, said he had voted for Mr Saakashvili.
He told the AFP news agency that he backed the president “because he is doing the right thing by taking the country into Nato and the European Union”.
Nino Saladze, another voter in the capital, said she was supporting Mr Gachechiladze.
“We’ve had enough of Mr Saakashvili, November was the last straw,” she told the AFP.
[…]
On the eve of the elections, Mr Saakashvili said Georgia was still a democratic pioneer among former Soviet republics, despite the crackdown on the opposition protests in November.
[…]
“We have to show the whole world that Georgian democracy is still alive,” he told thousands of supporters at a final campaign rally in the capital, Tbilisi.
Concerns, however, have been raised regarding control of the broadcast media in Georgia. According to almost every news report and blog entry, Saakashvili is prominent in news reports and on election campaign billboards. The point is duly noted from a report by Radio Netherlands Worldwide which also features an interview with Saakashvili’s Dutch wife, Sandra Roelofs.
You can’t escape him in the streets of Tbilisi. The image of President Mikhail Saakashvili is omnipresent. Large campaign posters with his photograph hang in squares and traffic junctions. They also decorate buses.
[…]
The state of emergency was of short duration. Mr Saakashvili called new elections and stepped down. Sandra Roelofs is convinced that the electorate will give her husband a new mandate. “When I travel through the country it’s obvious that people trust him and that they want to give him five years to build the house whose foundation has been laid during the last three or four years.”
[…]
Georgia has made noticeable progress in recent years as far as the fight against corruption is concerned and improvements in infrastructure. However, unemployment and widespread poverty continue to plague the country. Relations with neighbouring Russia are poor and Moscow’s economic boycott of Georgia has meant the loss of a major market, particularly for Georgian wine. There are also the unsolved ‘frozen’ conflicts in two provinces which have seceded from Georgia.
Like most news and information sources, the report says election observers believe Saakashvili is the favorite to win. However, it adds, his “popularity has fallen considerably since the Rose Revolution.”
Interestingly, however, Rob Parson’s article for openDemocracy says Saakashvili can at least count on the support of Georgia’s Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities who “recognise the efforts made on their behalf by Saakashvili and who traditionally vote for the ruling power.” It remains to be seen how the rest of the population feel.
From recent visits to Georgia, it seems that many ordinary Georgians are unhappy with Saakashvili, but as is the case with Armenia, it is uncertain whether the electorate can see an alternative in the form of an opposition candidate. One suspects that they cannot, but we we will have to wait and see.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0454334620080105
Comment by Onnik — January 5, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_presidential_election
Comment by Onnik — January 5, 2008 @ 2:36 pm