PACE Monitor: Georgia Election Disappointment, but Legitimate

The January 5 presidential election in Georgia was “a disappointment” but it would be a mistake to say that it was illegitimate, Matyas Eorsi, a monitor from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), told the PACE winter session in Strasbourg on January 21.

“I and the [Ad Hoc] Committee [of the PACE Bureau] expected Georgia to run a better election, especially based on the records the country had been showing over the past couple of years,” Eorsi said. “So in many ways this election was a disappointment, [in] how it was run; how it was organized.”

He stressed, in particular, “the unequal access to state resources and cases of intimidation.” “I can give you a huge list of those,” Eorsi added.

“So I think it would be totally improper if the government [of Georgia] would say after this election: well, we did a fantastic, very good election and it can not be improved any more – that would be a total mistake,” Eorsi, a Hungarian lawmaker, said.

But he also said that it would be “similarly a big mistake” to say that “this election was illegitimate and the outcome of the election can not be taken seriously.”

“I think it is important to accept [its] legitimacy and we in the Council of Europe should continue our work with the authorities and with the opposition to work together to improve the election environment in Georgia, because the country is facing parliamentary elections,” Eorsi said. “I am sure together with the government and opposition we shall be able to organize far better elections. That should be [the] challenge ahead of us.”

He said the entire electoral process should be placed in the context of the current political situation in Georgia.

“In November Georgia found itself in a deep political crisis, in a very deep one,” Eorsi said. “And the Georgian leadership chose to call the people for the vote. I think that is one of the best solutions… Mikheil Saakashvili shortened his presidency by almost one and a half years and I think that was a courageous step.”

President Saakashvili is expected to travel to Strasbourg to address a PACE session on January 24. The Russian delegation in PACE, however, tried on January 21 to block his address, saying that it would amount to taking sides ahead of the parliamentary elections. The PACE Parliamentary Assembly Bureau, however, insisted that Saakashvili be invited.