‘West Owes Georgian People’ – Opposition Leader

The nine-party opposition coalition said it would use western pressure to force the Georgian authorities to ensure free and fair conditions ahead of parliamentary elections this spring.

Levan Gachechiladze, the bloc’s presidential contender and Mikheil Saakashvili’s main rival in the election, said on January 21 that the bloc would in a week or so present to the international community a “detailed plan” on what should be done to secure free and fair elections. However, “if the current situation of violence remains, I doubt that we will participate in the parliamentary elections,” Gachechiladze told journalists after meeting with visiting Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

Meanwhile, Davit Usupashvili, the leader of the Republican Party, part of the nine-party coalition, said on January 21 that U.S. and European governments “now owe the Georgian people” because of their positive assessments of what he said was in fact a fraudulent presidential election.

“I get the impression that every international organization and the U.S. and European governments – although no one is publicly admitting it – feel they owe the Georgian people,” Usupashvili said in an interview with the RFE/RL Georgian Service. “What they could not or did not do in respect of the presidential election, they will definitely do in respect of the parliamentary elections.”

He explained the western position, saying they feared possible unrest if the international community had not endorsed the election.

“No international organization or foreign government has said it publicly, but I suspect they must be asking themselves one simple question: what is the alternative? [to their current position] What will happen in Georgia, if we say publicly what we have really observed [during the election]?” Usupashvili said. “And they have seen that the current situation in Georgia is not the same as it was in November 2003, when people defended their votes peacefully; instead, they fear, if they tell the truth, that angry people will clash with police and the entire machinery of repression and we know, following November 7, that it is a myth that the Georgian police will not shoot Georgian people… This is my personal take on how the international community is thinking, based on recent meetings I had with representatives of many international organizations and foreign governments. It seems their position is to resolve problems gradually ahead of the parliamentary elections and not immediately… So I think we should not be too radical in judging the international community’s role.”

Usupashvili also said that it would be unfair to accuse “all international observers” of bias and in particular he hailed the OSCE/ODIHR’s recent post-election interim report, which was highly critical of the post-election process.

Dialogue would continue with Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, he said, on reforming the election administrations and public TV and increasing the transparency of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary. These issues, he said, were key to securing free and fair parliamentary elections. Talks with Burjanadze are in keeping with the opposition position of refusing to recognise Saakashvili as the legitimate president and instead engaging with Parliament.

The opposition is insisting on equal representation at all level of election administrations with the chairmen of election commissions, including the Central Election Commission, being appointed through agreement between the opposition and the authorities.

Meanwhile, Koba Davitashvili, leader of the Party of People, said his party would hold a protest rally outside the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi on January 22. “We will call on [the U.S. government] not to support falsification and violence in Georgia and to stand with the Georgian people,” Davitashvili said on January 21.

Although the Party of People is part of the nine-party opposition coalition, the proposed rally is an independent initiative.