The opposition has resorted to international efforts in an attempt to convince the authorities to change the current election system.
Leaders of four opposition parties – New Rights, Labor, Republican and Conservative – launched a series of talks with foreign diplomats with a meeting with U.S. Ambassador John Tefft on June 8 in Tbilisi.
The opposition’s major concerns are regarding a first-past-the-post, “winner takes all” election system; composition of the election administrations, which the opposition claims is controlled by the ruling National Movement party; and the lack of clarity regarding the date of the election.
“We requested that the Ambassador inform his government about our complaints and also to better explain our arguments to our government,” Davit Usupashvili, leader of the Republican Party, said.
“The upcoming local elections are a very important political event in the country and we want them to be held in a civilized way,” he added.
Opposition leaders said that the two-hour talks were productive, but some of them seemed frustrated with, what they called, the “passive” position of U.S. officials and called on them to convince the Georgian authorities to undertake steps aimed at creating a “more democratic” election system.
“I said yesterday [during the meeting with the U.S. Ambassador] that the United States should speak out [against problems in Georgia] and should support not Mikheil Saakashvili, but the Georgian state and Georgian people,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of New Rights party, told RFE/RL Georgian service on June 9.
He also said that if the election is not free and fair “it might result in a very serious crisis.”
MP Gamkrelidze said that the U.S. Ambassador gave assurances that Washington considers the upcoming elections as a test in democracy for the Georgian authorities.
“If the test fails, the U.S. will consider reviewing its position regarding the current Georgian government, but not regarding Georgia itself,” he added.
MP Gamkrelidze also said that statements made by the U.S. officials hailing democracy and reforms in Georgia are a “little bit incompatible with the reality existing in the country.”
“I told the U.S. Ambassador directly that the pro-American stance is drastically decreasing among the Georgian society… which might be an indication that part of our society is getting used to the idea that no democratic values are needed and it would better to receive at least minimal social welfare from Russia. It seems that the [U.S.] Embassy is passive to a certain extent,” MP Gamkrelidze said.
The demand to change the current election system is also shared by other opposition parties. Leader of the oppostion party Georgia’s Way Salome Zourabichvili, however, is distancing herself from other opposition leaders. she said at a news conference on June 8 that the election code should be ammended. She also said that she plans to hold a series of meetings with foreign diplomats in Tbilisi to inform them about her position.
The opposition parliamentarians from the Republican, Conservative and New Rights parties have been boycotting parliamentary session for more than two months already. One of the demands of this boycott is that the current election system be changed. But the boycott has thus far failed to bring about any tangible results.
