CEC at Centre of Campaign Battle

The political controversy surronding the Central Election Commission (CEC) this week has left the opposition reeling, with presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili apparently gaining the upper hand.

The political fallout followed two separate interventions by opposition-nominated CEC members.

On December 11 the opposition members of the CEC blocked the proposed opening of polling stations in Iraq and Kosovo, which would have allowed over 2,000 Georgian soldiers serving there to vote in the January 5 early presidential polls. Earlier on the same day, in a separate incident, some opposition CEC members questioned the current voter lists.

The decision to deny soldiers serving abroad the opportunity to vote drew most attention on December 12, with the ruling party gaining maximum advantage at the opposition’s expense.

The army enjoys a 86% approval rating, according to public opinion research conducted in September 2007, putting it second only to the Georgian Orthodox Church in people’s estimations.

Mikheil Saakashvili was quick to capitalize on that popularity. “I want to express my concern about the CEC decision, which prevents our best 2,000 soldiers from participating in the presidential election,” he said on December 12. “I think that there are values, which stand above everything else and about which we should have a shared position.”

The Ministry of Defense on the same day also had its say. It organized a video conference call with a group of Georgian servicemen in Iraq, extracts of which were aired on Georgian TV. “We are all astonished with what has happened,” a soldier speaking from Iraq said. “We can not understand why we can’t vote.”

The 13-member CEC fell two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to open polling stations in Iraq and Kosovo. Although the ruling party holds a majority of seats – seven – in the CEC, the decision needed nine votes for approval.

Those who voted against cited a Georgian constitutional provision, which stipulates that elections should not be held if there is “a state of emergency or martial law.”

Zura Marakvelidze, an opposition Republican Party-nominated CEC member, subsequently defended his decision. “It is absolutely incorrect to suggest that the opposition has deprived Georgian soldiers abroad of their right to vote. It’s the Georgian constitution that has determined the matter,” he said.

However, Eka Tkeshelashvili, the justice minister, on December 12 rejected that rationale, saying the relevant constitutional provision refers only to Georgia itself and not to foreign countries.

Meanwhile, Mikheil Saakashvili’s re-election campaign office said that the CEC decision was aimed at depriving Saakashvili of a guaranteed 2,000 votes.

“Yesterday’s decision was made purely to deprive presidential candidate Mikheil Saakashvili of 2,000 votes, which he would have certainly received, because Mikheil Saakashvili has created the new Georgian army,” Davit Bakradze, the state minister for conflict resolution issues and a Saakashvili campaign spokesman, said on December 12.

The controversy surronding the CEC has also reignited the debate on the actual composition of the CEC. 
 
Six opposition parties – New Rights, Freedom, Republican, Industrialists, Conservatives, Labor – recently won the right to nominate political appointees to the CEC following a ruling party climb-down. The government had been insisting that the CEC remain composed of only non-partisan, certified election officials. Despite fears of politicizing the organization, the government backed down as part of a series of compromises made to the opposition following the November protests and unrest. The opposition had alleged that the previous CEC was only nominally non-partisan and in reality was totally controlled by the ruling party.

“[The] decision [on polling stations for soldiers abroad] has shown that we were right to have argued against a party-based CEC,” Bakradze said.

Soldiers’ voting rights is the first major point of contention within the newly constituted CEC. More, however, can be expected as the election looms. While some CEC decisions require a two-thirds majority, others, the endorsement of election results being an important case in point, require just a simple majority.