Tag Archives: election

UNM’s poor showing in Georgia’s election

TBILISI, OCT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Dream supporters, wearing their trademark blue shirts, celebrated long into the night on Sunday after it became clear that they had won a crushing victory over their rivals, the United National Movement party (UNM).

Make no mistake, the rivalry between the Georgian Dream and the UNM runs deep. Both sides accuse the other of fraud, violence and of trying to destabilise the country and, up until the first votes were cast on Oct. 8, it was unclear which party would win the parliamentary election. The Georgian Dream ruling coalition is bankrolled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. The UNM is the party of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who is now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine.

Now, it’s clear that the Georgian Dream has scored a major victory which could, potentially, end the UNM’s push for a comeback for good. The Central Election Commission said that the Georgian Dream had polled nearly 49% of the votes in the proportional representation element of the election, against 27% for the UNM. The Georgian Dream vote was down only slightly from 2012, when it won power for the first time, despite the tough economic times but the UNM vote crashed from 40% in 2012.

And it was clear from conversations on the streets of Tbilisi just why the Georgian Dream had won. Essentially the UNM, and Mr Saakashvili, is remembered for poisoning relations with Russia, triggering a 2008 war and torturing prison inmates — an episode highlighted by a TV drama series, paid for by Mr Ivanishvili, which was broadcast shortly before the election.

“People value peace more than economic development,” Lika, a 30-year- old translator, said. “The UNM did a lot for Georgia, but the moment they became authoritarian, they lost our trust.”

These sentiments were shared by Giorgi, a 50-year-old war veteran working as a taxi driver in Tbilisi.

“I voted for the Georgian Dream because there is no alternative. We can’t let the nationalists slip back into power. They were violating laws, torturing, even killing political opponents. I don’t want that. Georgia needs the rule of law first,” he said.

And perhaps, too, Mr Saakashvili also damaged the UNM’s chances. Voters complained that it wasn’t clear what his role was and whether voting for the UNM would mean his return.

Now, after the UNM’s defeat, they won’t find out.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Tension rises ahead of Georgia election after car bomb

TBILISI, OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A bomb exploded under the car of leading UNM parliamentarian Givi Targamadze in central Tbilisi, the most serious act of violence in a heated, and at times dangerous, campaign ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary election on Saturday.

Media reported that Mr Targamadze and his driver were unhurt in the blast, although four other people were injured.

The United National Movement party (UNM), backed by former President Mikheil Saakashvili, immediately accused the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, backed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, of planning the bomb attack.

“I think he (Targamadze) was chosen as a target because he has been keeping active contacts with the law enforcement which scares Ivanishvili very much,” Mr Saakashvili said on his Facebook page.

The Georgian Dream has denied any involvement and its supporters have instead said that the UNM planted the bomb itself to destabilise the country.

Georgia’s parliamentary election campaign has become increasingly fraught as polling day approaches.

Opposing MPs have fought on live TV debates, three supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition were allegedly beaten up by a group of UNM supporters and last week two men were shot and injured at a rally being given by Irakli Okruashvili, a former Georgian defence minister.

Analysts have said that the election is too close to call.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Comment: Georgia’s combustible election, writes Kilner

SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — It was always going to get heated. Georgia’s parliamentary election descended into fighting this week when two opposing MPs traded punches during a live TV debate.

The surprise, perhaps, is that it has taken so long. Reports from Tbilisi have said that this has been one of the better-natured election campaigns in Georgia of recent years.

This parliamentary election campaign is a replay of the 2012 election when the Georgian Dream coalition, the party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, unseated the United National Movement party (UNM), the party of the then president Mikheil Saakashvili, in a bitter affair.

Since then the two parties haven’t stopped hurling insults at each other over human rights abuses and corruption. Fury has been building for four years. The policy differences and what each party represents — essentially the Georgian Dream is pro-Russia, pro-Church and pro-Ivanishvili; the UNM pro-West, pro-liberal and pro-Saakashvili — get lost in the fog of the battle and character assassinations that both sides have been dealing in.

Smaller parties generally form alliances with either the Georgian Dream or the UNM and buckle up for the ride.

At the apex of the storm two men are using the election to fight a Machiavellian encounter. Neither is actually standing in the election.

Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest man. He pulls the strings at the Georgian Dream, deciding who will lead the party, and its policies.

Saakashvili, who dominated Georgian politics between 2003 and 2013, has been forced into exile, wanted by the Georgian prosecutors to stand trial on various accounts of financial wrongdoing. He is now governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine but there is little doubt he wields huge influence over the UNM His Dutch-born wife Sandra Roelofs, is standing as a candidate.

Ivanishvili and Saakashvili hate each other.

There are still eight days to go until the Oct. 8 election. They are going to be eight, tension-filled days with candidates focused on attacking one another, rather than debating the issues of the day — the state of the economy, relations with Russia and the West, civil rights, its rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

After the elections, perhaps there will be time for Georgian politics to reset.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Council of Europe criticises Azerbaijan referendum

SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional experts working under the Council of Europe, criticised the upcoming referendum in Azerbaijan, which calls for an extension of presidential terms from five to seven years and other laws which it said would consolidate power in the hands of President Ilham Aliyev.

In a statement, the Venice Commission said that the proposed legal amendments will effectively allow Mr Aliyev to rule indefinitely.

“Many proposed amendments would severely upset the balance of power by giving unprecedented powers to the president,” the lawyers of the Venice Commission said in a statement.

Azerbaijani officials said that the Commission was out of line in judging the proposed amendments which will be voted on in a referendum on Sept. 26.

“The referendum doesn’t expand presidential powers, this is about improving governance,” Shahin Aliyev, head the Presidential Administration’s law unit, told local media.

Mr Aliyev has already tinkered with Azerbaijan’s constitution when he scrapped a limit on presidential terms in 2009.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

UNM fight to shake off ex-Georgian President shadow to win over voters

TBILISI, SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Next month’s parliamentary election in Georgia marks a new epoch for the United National Movement party (UNM). This is the first national election that it is fighting without its founder, former leader and most recognisable talisman — former Georgian President Mikheil Saakhashvili.

But this may not be a bad thing. Mr Saakashvili is a polarising figure and the mere mention of his name can make Georgians recoil. He lead a peaceful revolution in 2003 that saw the former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze thrown from power as Georgia’s president. Mr Saakashvili was then president from 2004 until 2013. By that time, though, his reputation, and that of the UNM, had come full circle.

Mr Saakashvili had rebranded Georgia with a new flag, a new army ready to fight alongside NATO and a western oriented foreign policy. But he had also picked fights with Russia, and allegedly allowed abuses and beatings in Georgia’s prisons.

From a seemingly omnipotent position, the UNM had first lost a parliamentary election to the upstart Georgian Dream coalition in 2012 and then the presidential election in 2013. Mr Saakashvili has been forced into exile and is now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine.

But many voters in Tbilisi, think that he is still influencing the UNM.

Levani, a 27-year-old Tbilisi resident described the UNM as a “disgrace” which kept people under “police control and repression”.

“These days Saakashvili still has enormous influence on the UNM,” she said. “He manages to form the list of candidates for ballots, guide the activists for their provocations and generate low level international pressure to hit the image of the current government and undermine the elections.” Teona, a 25-year-old, agreed.

“They are still associated with Saakashvili and nobody has any question mark about that,” he said. “There are many new people in the UNM whom I might sympathise with but for me still they are affiliated with former regime and I don’t trust them.”

For Giorgi Kandelaki, a UNM MP, these are difficult times. He said that the decision-making progress within the party is now removed from Mr Saakashvili and that he was not trying to influence events from Odessa.

“Mr Saakashvili now is not giving any line to the party to follow. He can give advice and the party takes it on board or not,” he told The Conway Bulletin in an interview.

He did hint though that while Mr Saakashvili’s legacy was positive for the UNM’s core voters, different tactics were needed to attract new voters.

“For the voting base of the UNM, the figure of Saakashvili and his legacy is very positive. As far as concerns undecided voters, we are reaching out to this segment by bringing a lot of new faces into UNM”, he said.

The election is set for Oct. 9. The few opinion polls which have been published put the UNM and the ruling Georgian Dream coalition on level pegging.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Armenia’s ruling party sags in local elections

SEPT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s ruling Republican Party lost a series of local elections, a reflection, observers said, of the drop in popularity for President Serzh Sargsyan and his government.

The elections focused on voting in civil leaders in small towns and villages across Armenia.

The Central Election Commission said that 350,000 people had voted in the election, a turnout of around 50%, giving it credibility as an opinion poll on the president.

Media reports said that of the 317 local governing bodies where voting took place, the Republican Party won 161. Importantly, though, it lost control of 30 towns and villages that it had previously held.

Analysts said that this was a reflection of the lack of trust in the Republican Party which has dominated Armenian politics since 2003. The economy is stagnant and a group of gunmen captured a police triggering a two week stand-off with police.

Earlier this month Hovik Abrahamyan resigned as Armenia’s PM. He had been in the job for two years but said that a new government was needed to restore confidence in the government.

President Sargsyan quickly appointed Karen Karapetyan as the new PM. He is a former mayor of Yerevan.

Hovannes Sahakian, a Reublican Party MP, said the worse-than-expected results were attributable to some poor local politics.

“There are many problems in those three dozen communities,” he told the RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “We need to revise things, change the strategy and tactics. What happened is not a tragedy.”

President Sargsyan has not commented on the results of the elections.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Georgia condemns Russia on polling stations

SEPT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian government condemned Russia’s use of polling stations in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia for its parliamentary election on Sept. 18. Georgia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the issuing of Russian passports to people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia breached Georgia’s sovereignty and was illegal.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Mirziyoyev to run to be Uzbek president

SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev said he will run in the upcoming Uzbek presidential election, scheduled for Dec. 4, immediately installing himself as the favourite to win.

UzLiDeP, the party of former President Islam Karimov, nominated Mr Mirziyoyev for the top job.

Mr Mirziyoyev has served as PM since 2003. He was named acting president less than a week after Karimov died of a stroke on Sept. 2.

After the nomination, Mr Mirziyoyev praised Karimov.

“Karimov is our pride. This man brought me up, he was like a father to me,” he said.

The Central Election Commission also said that the National Revival Party nominated Sarvar Otamuradov as a contestant, although he is expected only to play the role of sparring partner.

No Western election observers have judged a vote in Uzbekistan to be either free or fair.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)f

Georgia’s court reinstates two parties for election

TBILISI, SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Indicating just how fraught campaigning in Georgia has become ahead of a parliamentary election next month, a court in Tbilisi reversed an earlier decision by the Central Election Commission which had banned the Industrialist Party and the Our Homeland Party from the vote.

On Sept. 11, Tamar Zhvania, the Commission’s chairwoman, de-registered the two parties for submitting their party lists after the official dead- line had expired.

The Industrialists and Our Homeland appealed the decision and the Tbilisi court said that the Commission would now have to register the two parties for the upcoming parliamentary election on Oct. 8.

Both parties are staunchly pro- Russia and critics of former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s UNM party. Their reinstatement should boost the chances of another Georgian Dream coalition government being voted back into power.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Georgia’s parliamentary election likely to be fraught

TBILISI, SEPT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Central Election Commission said that 41 political parties had registered to compete in the country’s Oct. 8 parliamentary elections, highlighting the potentially fraught and unpredictable nature of the vote.

It also said that the 41 political parties had formed seven blocs, including the current governmental Georgian Dream and the United National Movement (the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili).

Pollsters have said the election is going to be too close to call. A poll by the US’ National Democratic Institute (NDI) in July said 58% of voters were still undecided.

“This level of undecided people just weeks before an election should be a wake up call for all the contesting parties,” said Laura Thornton NDI senior director.

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(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)