U.S. Official Notes Progress in Preparing Fair Elections

Mathew Bryza, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, said there was a “progress in preparing for a free and fair” parliamentary election on May 21, but also noted there still was “plenty of work to do to make sure that all of the Georgian voters have full faith in the electoral process.”

“It is important that the voter lists be as accurate as possible; use of administrative resources for political purposes in a way that is illegal be taken care of, addressed and stopped and that Georgian voters are confident that if they have complaint about the way the election was carried out, they would be able to have a fair hearing through the election commissions and through the Georgian court system,” Bryza said at a news conference in Tbilisi on May 9.

Earlier on Friday the U.S. official met with the opposition leaders and some of them again complained about what they call support of the U.S. administration and personally Mathew Bryza to the President Saakashvili’s administration and because of that support, they claimed, “anti-American sentiments” started to grow in Georgia.   

Levan Gachechiladze, the leader of the nine-party opposition bloc said prior to the meeting with Bryza: “They [the U.S. administration] are lobbying them [the Saakashvili’s administration], like Central [Communist Party] Committee was lobbying its secretaries [local Communist Party chiefs] in Georgia from the Kremlin during the Soviet times.”

Speaking at the news conference, Bryza had to again address those complaints.  
 
“In every country where I have responsibility, or wherever I’ve worked, every political group tries to bring us on their side in their domestic political debates,” he said. “Perhaps some people confuse democracy with support for themselves. I know the cornerstone of our administration’s foreign policy, which is that stability can only come through political legitimacy and legitimacy can only come from democracy.”

He then recalled the 2003 Rose Revolution, as well as ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze and said that even through Shevardnadze was considered “a close friend” of the United States “at the end of the day it was the democratic force of peaceful protest that became the Rose Revolution that changed the course of this country’s history.”

“As painful as there was we stood by democracy [during the Rose Revolution],” he added. “In November [2007] things were difficult here politically. I had very blunt discussions with the leadership of this country. And that was painful, but we stood on the side of democracy and we continue that today.”

“As long as Georgia continues its very constructive path of articulating peace plan [for resolving conflicts] and as long as election preparations precede and shortcomings in last January’s election are taken care of and you Georgians see these elections free and fair, we believe Georgia will find itself on a very strong path on which you will feel support of the entire Euro-Atlantic community.”