Saakashvili on Adjara Elections

President Saakashvili said despite low-profile campaigning by his ruling party, the National Movement won landslide victory in the Adjara’s local elections and the authorities should now meet the voters’ expectations.

“The elections in Adjara were held in an unusual situation [referring to the post war situation] and our attitude towards these elections was unusual as well,” he told journalists on November 4. “Although Adjara is a very important region for me and the results of elections there are important for Georgia, during the entire election period, neither me, nor the central authorities have participated in the election campaign. I asked the party which I chair [the National Movement] not to put ads on the central TV channels and we have not spent significant funds on advertisement. We owe greatly to the Adjarian population. We should justify that we deserve this confidence. The local authorities and its chairman [Levan Varshalomidze] should justify this confidence. We should fulfill everything what we have promised to our people.

The ruling party won over 78.8% of votes and another party which cleared 5% threshold is the Christian-Democratic party with 14.7%.

Elections in Adjara were boycotted by most of the opposition parties. 

A six-member delegation from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which observed polls in Adjara, said that “the polling day was orderly and conducted in a positive atmosphere" and added elections showed "sporadic progress." It also noted that there were reports of inadequacies regarding the voter lists, and the vote count and transmission of results often proved difficult.

The delegation also said that it “expressed doubts about whether the reduction of seats in the new Supreme Council from 30 to 18 can enhance regional democracy, which should remain a goal.”

“Similar doubts were expressed about the fact that the Council does not have the right to elect directly the Head of Adjara Government,” it added.

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