Georgian ruling party wins 'problematic' elections
LEIGH PHILLIPS
22.05.2008 @ 18:01 CET
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's ruling party has won the country's parliamentary elections, according to initial results from the Georgian Central Electoral Commission.
Opposition leaders are challenging the result, which gives the United National Movement 61 percent of the vote, as having been rigged and are planning street demonstrations for later in the week.
Election observers gave a mixed assessment of the Georgian parliamentary elections (Photo: wikipedia)
The Georgian government claims the vote was free and fair, but election observers from the OSCE gave a mixed assessment of the 21 May elections.
The head of the European Parliament Observer Mission, French Green MEP Marie Anne Isler Béguin, said she had witnessed "no serious violations" and called on the four opposition parties to "stay calm" while awaiting the full results.
"The electoral laws were fulfilled to the last letter," said the chairperson of Sweden's delegation to the OSCE, Walburga Habsburg-Douglas.
"There was 100 percent transparency—if ever there was a transparent election, it was this one," he added.
However, an official OSCE assessment was more tempered.
"Political stakeholders in Georgia made efforts to conduct yesterday's parliamentary elections in line with international standards, but a number of problems were identified which made their implementation uneven and incomplete," the International Election Observation Mission said in a preliminary statement released on Thursday.
The government unilaterally changed the election system shortly before the elections in a manner seen by the opposition as favouring the ruling party, according to an OSCE assessment.
"Parties were able to campaign actively, but there were numerous allegations of intimidation, some of which could be verified," read the report
"The distinction between state activities and the government party's campaign was often blurred."
"These elections were not perfect, but since I was here in January for the presidential election, concrete and substantial progress has been made. Problems and much work remain," said Joao Soares, the co-ordinator of the OSCE observer team.
Once the darling of Western democrats in the wake of the peaceful so-called Rose Revolution in 2003, President Saakashvili diminished his reputation amongst European capitals after he used riot police to crush opposition protests in November last year.
Nonetheless, despite the democratic teething problems of the young democracy, the EU has so far robustly supported Georgia in recent weeks in its ongoing tussle with Russia, which recently recognised key institutions in the Georgian breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia – a move that Georgia claims is one step away from Russian annexation of the regions.
In the latest violent episode, Georgians from Abkhazia attempting to cross the border near Zugdidi, a Georgia-controlled town, in order to vote were fired upon by Abkhazian soldiers.