Auguries for the upcoming parliamentary elections worsen as violence prevails in election campaigning of the political parties.
Dozens were injured as a result of a clash between the supporters of the opposition National Movement party and the police and representatives of the presidential-backed election bloc For New Georgia in Bolnisi, the eastern Georgian region of Kvemo Kartli, on September 26.
Leader of the National Movement and Chairman of the Tbilisi City Council Mikheil Saakashvili intended to visit Bolnisi for election campaigning.
“The police and the local authorities blocked our way to Bolnisi. They used firearms, stones to force us to return. However, we managed to enter Bolnisi and met with the local population,” Mikheil Saakashvili said at a special briefing upon his return from Bolnisi.
He called on President Shevardnadze “to show discretion and refrain from using force against the opposition.”
The leaders of the presidential-backed election bloc claimed that Mikheil Saakashvili and the members of the National Movement provoked the incident in Bolnisi. Meanwhile, State Minister Avtandil Jorbenadze said “anybody who violates the law must stand responsible for that, regardless to his or her political affiliation.”
The National Movement’s candidacy Kamal Muradkhanov will run for the Parliament in Bolnisi single-mandate constituency. Levan Mamaladze, influential ex-governor of Kvemo Kartli region and one of the leaders of the presidential-backed election bloc will be the National Movement’s main contender in Bolnisi.
Confrontation between the two candidates started on September 24, when the police stopped the car of Kamal Muradkhanov of the National Movement, arrested him and confiscated 385 passports and IDs belonging to his supporters. Levan Mamaladze on 25 September claimed that some of those passports belonged to the people who are deceased, and accused the National Movement of planning ballot rigging in Bolnisi.
President Shevardnadze downplayed incident in Bolnisi. “I can not say anything about the incident in Bolnisi until the investigation is not over. But the most alarming is the fact that up to 300, or 400 faked passports and IDs were discovered,” President Shevardnadze told reporters on September 27.
The criminal case has been initiated regarding the September 26 incident in Bolnisi, however Deputy Interior Minister Ruben Asanidze says that the police and the representatives of the local authorities of Bolnisi were injured most of all and they are main victims of the incident.
The election observer NGO International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) condemned the incident in Bolnisi. The ISFED’s statement issued on September 26 reads “the fact [clash in Bolnisi] demonstrates once more, that the Constitution, any law or any internationally recognized democratic values are not respected in Georgia.”
ISFED demanded the law enforcement agencies to investigate this fact and punish the perpetrators.
In early July all the Georgian political parties agreed on the principles proposed by the U.S. former Secretary of State James Baker, who visited Georgia on July 5-6. “All political actors will refrain from violence or incitement to violence, threats and intimidation during the election campaign, the elections itself, and the election’s aftermath,” the Baker’s scorecard for Georgia’s elections reads.
