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Is Georgia becoming progressively less democratic?

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  • Is Georgia becoming progressively less democratic?

    Eurasianet organization
    July 4 2005

    IS GEORGIA BECOMING PROGRESSIVELY LESS DEMOCRATIC?

    Liz Fuller 7/04/05

    Two developments in recent weeks have further tarnished Georgia's
    claim to be the trailblazer of liberal democracy within the CIS. The
    first was the launch of a process to staff the Central Election
    Commission and its lower-level equivalents with people known to be
    loyal to the ruling elite. That process also effectively excluded
    many Armenians and Azerbaijanis from southern and eastern Georgia
    from serving on such commissions. The second was the national
    legislature's initial backing of an amendment to empower the Tbilisi
    municipal council to elect the city mayor.

    Together, they beg questions about the dedication to democracy of the
    "democrats" who came to power in the 2003 Rose Revolution.

    The Georgian Example

    The claim of Georgia's pioneering democratic role derives from the
    advent to power in the so-called Rose Revolution in November 2003 of
    a team of young, pro-Western politicians who proclaimed their shared
    determination to put an end to the corruption and graft that had been
    the hallmarks of the Shevardnadze era. The opposition movements that
    subsequently brought about the fall of the incumbent leaderships in
    Ukraine in December 2004 and Kyrgyzstan in March 2005 both
    acknowledged they were inspired and empowered by the Georgian
    example, and US President George W. Bush has repeatedly hailed the
    Georgian example, most recently during his visit to Tbilisi in early
    May.

    While the new Georgian leadership lost no time in dismissing and
    arresting -- sometimes in front of television cameras --
    Shevardnadze-era officials suspected of corruption and mismanagement,
    skepticism swiftly surfaced over the depth of the new government's
    commitment to true democratization and far-reaching reform. In a
    lengthy and detailed analysis of the aftermath of the 2003 Rose
    Revolution published in December, one London-based analyst suggested
    that the transition from Eduard Shevardnadze to Mikheil Saakashvili
    (who was elected president in early January 2004 with 96 percent of
    the vote) was one from "democracy without democrats" to "democrats
    without democracy."

    Contradictory Signals

    The first development that supports that implicit contradiction was
    the selection by President Saakashvili of the 13 members of the new
    Central Election Commission from a shortlist of 30 compiled by his
    staffers. At its first session on June 7, the new Central Election
    Commission solicited applications from persons wishing to serve on
    the 75 five-member district election commissions. Applicants must be
    over 21, have a higher education, and speak fluent Georgian. That
    latter requirement automatically excludes thousands of Armenians and
    Azerbaijanis who grew up in regions of southern and eastern Georgia
    where there are no schools with Georgian as the language of
    instruction. On June 14, the parliamentary opposition accused deputy
    speaker Mikheil Machavariani and other leaders of the parliamentary
    majority of systematically summoning regional governors to Tbilisi
    and ordering them to ensure that local election commissions are
    dominated by members of the ruling National Movement, rustavi2.com
    reported. Machavariani conceded that regional governors are being
    summoned to Tbilisi to discuss preparations for upcoming midterm
    elections, but he denied that the leadership is plotting to determine
    the outcome of that ballot to its own advantage. "We are all eager to
    hold free and fair elections," rustavi2.com quoted Machavariani as
    saying.

    The second potentially troubling event was the approval by parliament
    in the first reading on June 23 of amendments to the law on Tbilisi
    that provide for the city's mayor to be chosen by members of the
    municipal council, rather than directly elected. Until now, the
    president has appointed the mayor of Tbilisi, just as in neighboring
    Armenia the president names the mayor of Yerevan. Armenia has for
    months been under considerable pressure from the Council of Europe to
    include in a package of proposed constitutional amendments provision
    for the direct election of the Yerevan mayor, and last week agreed to
    that demand.

    Pro-Saakashvili legislators and Saakashvili himself have sought to
    rationalize that procedure by arguing that the election of a mayor
    whose political affiliation differs from that of the majority of
    municipal council members could paralyze the city legislature. But
    opposition politicians protested that the legislation would pave the
    way for the ruling party to dominate the city council on a permanent
    basis. Koba Davitashvili (Conservative) termed it the first step
    toward abolishing all mayoral elections in all towns and predicted
    that it could trigger a serious civic crisis. Even before that
    amendment was unveiled in parliament, the opposition Conservative
    party raised the possibility of seeking to impeach President
    Saakashvili on the grounds that he has violated the constitution by
    failing to introduce direct elections for the post of mayor in the
    towns of Batumi, Poti, and Zestafoni, Caucasus Press reported on
    April 14.

    Another protest situation stems from a recent decree promulgated by
    Saakashvili that strips Georgia's universities of their autonomy and
    augments the power of the rector, who is appointed by the president.
    Faculty members at Tbilisi State University launched a protest on
    June 27 against the decision by acting rector Rusudan Lortkipanidze
    to reduce the number of faculties from 22 to six and to dismiss 800
    staff. Lortkipanidze responded to that protest action by declaring
    that anyone who dislikes her planned reforms is free to resign.

    Top-Down Democratization?

    It is unclear whether and to what extent Saakashvili's
    quasi-authoritarian approach has contributed to the growing
    perception that the level of democracy in Georgia is on the decline.
    On June 27, Caucasus Press cited the findings of a recent poll of 500
    people conducted by the weekly "Kviris palitra" in which 26.6 percent
    of respondents said they believe the level of democracy has declined
    over the past 12 months. By contrast, 49.4 percent of respondents
    considered that the level of democracy has not changed over that
    period.

    Nor is its apparent reluctance to promote top-down democratization
    the only perceived failing of the new Georgian leadership. Some of
    its senior members have been accused of criminal activities. For
    example, Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili and his protege, Mikheil
    Kareli, governor of the Shida Kartli region that encompasses the
    disputed unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia, are both believed to
    be implicated in smuggling, according to the Institute for War and
    Peace Reporting's Caucasus Reporting Service on April 21. On June 24,
    the opposition New Conservative (a.k.a. New Rightist) parliamentary
    faction accused Kareli of creating obstacles to private business,
    rustavi2.com reported. Okruashvili has further been accused of
    single-handedly determining how budget funds allocated for the
    Georgian armed forces should be spent, according to the daily
    "Rezonansi" on May 13.

    To date, the fractured Georgian opposition has not shown any
    readiness to close ranks and coalesce in a single, powerful
    antigovernment force. There have, however, been reports that some
    members of the present leadership might be considering switching to
    the opposition camp. On June 24, rustavi2.com quoted parliamentary
    speaker Burdjanadze as saying she is unaware whether some former
    close associates of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who died in
    February under circumstances that have still not been completely
    clarified, intend to join the Republican Party. At a congress on June
    27, that party elected as its new chairman legal expert David
    Usupashvili. Outgoing Chairman David Berdzenishvili told congress
    delegates that he believes Usupashvili is capable of transforming the
    party into a qualitatively new force with strong chances of emerging
    among the winners of the next elections.
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