Opposition ready to move on?
From speaking with opposition coalition representative Kakha Kukava, I get the impression they are seriously rethinking their earlier vow of continuous street protests.
They seem to have been in deliberations most of the day, considering how to move forward from here. Tomorrow, they'll meet with the CEC and international observers to register their complaints before making an announcement on their next rally.
It may be premature to call it, but I suspect they'll denounce the presidential election and then move on into a campaign for the parliamentary elections. There doesn't seem to be enough people willing to stand in the snow to give them clout in a standoff with the government -- but they could pick up plenty of seats in parliament if they play their hand right.
posted by Winston Featherly @ 1/07/2008 11:16:00 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
This is reminiscent of the 2000 election in the US between Al Gore and George Bush. The Gore camp demanded recount after recount, but the bottom line was that the election was fair and they lost. All they succeeded in doing was creating more partisan bickering and bringing negative attention to the election.
Georgia is a young democracy. Accept the results, which in the eyes of the OSCE and the world was fair, and move on. If the opposition wants to do something positive, then focus your attention on the parliamentary elections. All they’re doing now is looking like a bunch of spoiled brats that didn’t get their way. This is not the image Georgia needs to portray.
Each country, exspecially Georgia with a young democracy, needs a good opposition. Eventho Misha is the best candidate, he sometimes makes mistakes and there should be a adequate respond to those mistakes. I can't say Gachechiladze is being the perfect opposition now. By intruding the CEC and making threats to Tarkhnishvili he is acting against all democtratic value's. It shock's me that apparently a quarter of Georgian people need such a leader. It's so easy to see the dark sides of Gachechiladze.
I do agree with the other two comments that the most effective way for the opposition might be to move on and look ahead to the parliamentary elections. Ditto that Gachechiladze hardly is an ideal opposition candidate. However, on the other hand: it does strike me that the international community seems to settle so easily on the verdict of free and fair elections. Everyone who watched the Georgian media prior to January 5 knows full well that the contest was anything but fair. I think it augurs very badly for Saakashvili's next term that he gets away with his decidedly authoritarian behaviour so easily. I can see the next Russian comments about the OSCE ODIHR being biased coming, and to be honest, I am also getting the impression that political expediency is a factor in the obsevers' assessment.
I dont know.... Be violently dismanteling the rally on the 7th of november i thought Misha went crazy. I couldn't see a good reason for that. But later developments convinced me of his right doing (not fully!!). I think what we have to keep in mind is that Georgia'has got a young democracy and with that, errors comes along. And also Georgia is not The Netherlands or France etc. Due to territorial problems and dark forces the president of Georgia needs to take centain things in account, things that you cant solve by being pure democrate. Try to imagine what had happened if he let the rally on the 7th continue. By analyzing Gachechiladze's and Badri's behauvior I think by now in Georgia would be a total anarchy.
As someone who worked for OSCE during the election, I can say that political expediency was certainly a factor in the overall assessment. However, if you carefully read the OSCE final report when it comes out, you'll see that all manner of minor violations are reported, and in some raions the vote or counting was completely illegitimate.
In my own opinion, Saakashvili would have won a little less than 50% with a truly free vote, and then probably would have won the second round. It is unfortunate that leaders in the former soviet union all seem to think they need to improve their numbers when they would have won anyway. Saakashvili is better than Nazarbaev or Aliyev. But fair? No. Or maybe it is the system that is corrupt, not the leaders.
Are you allowed to spread your own opinion outside the official statement of the OSCE?
Niels
political expediency did play a role but in reverse way too. Look at OSCE and Armenia's last elections. And it is not a secret that Boden has been a pro-Russian expedient giving extremely hard time on CFE related issues and supporting Russia on Gudauta. Maybe that means nothing for you, "professional" observer. Let Russia go ahead with its anticipated vetoing of your budget and your statements will become harsher for Georgia and blinder when it suits Russia. It works both ways and increasingly the other way. Lets be honest and have the full picture.
Nice blog posst
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