Saakashvili Pledges Free and Fair Elections

President Saakashvili said that he was “a guarantor” that the May 21 parliamentary elections would be free and fair.

“Free and fair parliamentary elections are a matter of national dignity and security,” he said on March 31 at a meeting with the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia.

The president also introduced the inter-agency governmental group, established to act as a rapid reaction mechanism in case of violations during electoral campaigns.

“The goal of this group is to address all the issues at the executive level and tackle all the problems rapidly in cooperation with local and international observer missions,” Saakashvili said.

Despite what he called the opposition’s failure to engage in constructive dialogue with the authorities, he said the ruling party had “unilaterally” amended the election code to further improve the electoral process. He again cited internal opposition disagreement for the failure to produce results in the government-opposition talks.

Although the ruling party did allow for opposition representation at district election commissions (six out of 13), concessions on key electoral rules were not made. Crucially, opposition demands on the rules governing the election of majoritarian MPs were ignored, as were calls for changes in the composition of the Central Election Commission (CEC), and in particular calls for the dismissal of CEC Chairman Levan Tarkhnishvili.