Local Self-Governance Elections Was Delayed Nearly Unanimously
The Dilis Gazeti; the Resonance
The Central Electoral Commission postponed elections for a year, by October 20, 2002. “Even though the official reason of delaying the elections was the absence of sufficient finances, the fact is that political motive backed the decision”, the Dilis Gazeti states. It assumes that almost none of the political powers was interested in holding the elections as planned, thus it was delayed nearly unanimously.
“President Shevardnadze and parliamentary faction Industry Saves Georgia were the only ones to consider it possible for the elections to be held on November 4, 2001 as planned earlier”, the Resonance says. Neither the Citizens’ Union of Georgia nor the Revival wants the elections now, member of the faction Vakhtang Khmaladze told the paper.
The CUG supports the idea of delaying the elections because it is falling apart and there is a great confusion about what alliances will be formed. The opposition claims that the elections should be delayed for the following reasons: there is not much time left for registering candidates; it is still unclear the elections should be held according to independent MP or proportional system of elections; financing the CEC is related to some problems; the issue of completing electoral commissions remains unresolved also, the paper reports.
According to the source of the paper, the political block Revival will support the President on the local self-governance elections.
In difference from the local self-governance elections, “debates over delaying independent MP elections in Vake district and Baghdati region were much more intensive and scandal… It may seem surprising but the initiator of their postponing was Jumber Lominadze (head of the CUC)”, the Dilis Gazeti says. According to its information, before leaving for Washington DC Shevardnadze had an acute conversation with Lominadze stating that he would not sign the verdict about postponing the elections. In spite of resistance the independent MP elections will not be delayed and will be held on October 21, the newspaper presumes.
