Ruling Party Takes All in Georgian Local Elections

Local elections in Georgia, hailed by observers as largely free and fair, have handed control of the capital Tbilisi to the ruling party, which also did well in the provinces.

Preliminary results showed that the National Movement, which supports President Mikhail Saakashvili, won at least half of the vote in all contests and an average of 60 to 70 per cent overall in the May 30 polls.

Gigi Ugulava, in the first election for a directly-elected mayor of the capital, retained his position in city hall in what observers said was a fair reflection of the will of the electorate.

“The Election Administration and the government demonstrated their will to conduct fair elections, during both the pre-election period and on election day. This positive trend is worth noting,” said the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, ISFED, a Georgian non-government organisation that monitored more than 1,000 polling stations.

“However, a number of tendencies observed on election day cast a shadow on the positive assessment.”

Among other problems, ISFED noted that some people had been unable to vote, some electoral lists were padded with non-existent people, and some electoral officials were poorly qualified for their jobs.

“It should be noted, however, that according to ISFED’s observation mission, such facts were not widespread,” it added.

The key result from the weekend’s voting was Ugulava’s 55 per cent win in the capital, a solid firm victory over Irakli Alasania, who was standing for the opposition Alliance for Georgia movement and gained just 19 per cent.

Political analysts said Alasania, a former ambassador to the United Nations, had reason to be optimistic despite his defeat.

“Alasania has distinguished himself well among the opposition, and he’s done all this in an unprecedentedly short period,” said Ramaz Sakvarelidze, a political expert at the Tbilisi State University. “He’s a young man who returned from America two years ago, and who has suddenly become the leader. But the most important question is whether he can sustain this rate of political progress,”

The Tbilisi mayoral election, which was contested by another seven candidates, gained the most attention since the capital is home to one in three Georgians.

In the voting for the Tbilisi city assembly or Sakrebulo, preliminary results showed that the opposition won just 11 of the 50 seats, and these were divided among four groupings – the Christian-Democratic Union, the Alliance for Georgia, the National Council; and the Topadze-Industrialists.

They announced that they would form a joint front in the local assembly, despite the ruling National Movement having won an overwhelming majority.

“We intend to fight for the fulfilment of those promises that we made to our voters. Gigi Ugulava has announced that he’s ready to cooperate with the opposition. As a result, we’re going to fight from day one to make the government reduce taxes in this country,” said Inga Grigolia, a well-known journalist who stood as a candidate for the Christian Democrats, who won 12 per cent.

David Zurabishvili of the Alliance for Georgia, which won 18 per cent of the vote, said, “If we work intelligently, then our five representatives in the local assembly should be enough to shift the centre of political struggle to the Sakrebulo. The Sakrebulo will become the real centre of the political struggle, and the process of changing the government will start from there.”

Speaking for the National Council, which won eight per cent, Kakha Kukava said the effectiveness of the opposition would depend on the extent to which its members were prepared to cooperate with one another.

“The main reason for our defeat was the lack of unity among the opposition,” he said. “Without unity, the opposition will not be effective in its struggle.”

It is hard to say whether the opposition will manage to turn the city assembly into the frontline in its attempts to unseat Saakashvili, but local residents can certainly expect interesting scenes in what has been a quiescent chamber for years, with work taking place behind closed doors.

The opposition has some cause for hope, given that Saakashvili himself rose to power in 2003 from his position as speaker of Tbilisi’s assembly.

The main political battle will take place at the 2012 parliamentary election, and in 2013, when the ruling party must come up with a candidate to replace Saakashvili as president.

Saakashvili has already announced that there will be a “period of calm, stability and development” after the May 30 elections.

“There won’t be elections for a minimum of two years, if not more, although I don’t know what exactly it says in the constitution,” he told a government session on June 2. “That means we have many months, at least a year, to conduct important reforms and also to continue what we’ve been doing up to now.”

Alasania, however, made clear that the opposition would not observe Saakashvili’s “period of calm” in politics.

“The nation has chosen us as one of the most important and vital political forces. As a result of this support, we will continue our struggle for fresh victories,” he told activists from the Alliance for Georgia the day after the elections.

Within hours of the polls closing, Ugulava said he was prepared to cooperate with his defeated opponents, and political analysts speculated that this might mean he intended to remain an independent political player.

“It is rare for Georgian politicians to cooperate. The ruling party, in particular, is often accused of not being able to cooperate with its opponents,” said Sakvarelidze. “If Ugulava is really going to cooperate with the opposition, that means he will dissociate himself from the ruling party and try to take more popular and individual steps,”

Outside Tbilisi, the ruling party won a majority in all the local assemblies. The Christian-Democratic Union came a distant second, with nearly 12 per cent of the vote nationwide, while the Alliance for Georgia gained just over nine per cent.

Anna Kandelaki is a freelance journalist in Tbilisi.