Georgian parliamentary election, 2008

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Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on May 21, 2008. [1] President Mikheil Saakashvili proposed a referendum on bringing them forward from October to April after the 2007 Georgian demonstrations. [2] The referendum was held at the same time as the early presidential election on 5 January 2008; according to exit polls, voters were largely in favour of having the elections in spring. [3]

Georgia (country) Country in the Caucasus region

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its 2017 population is about 3.718 million. Georgia is a unitary semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

President of Georgia position

The President of Georgia is the constitutional Head of State of Georgia as well as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces. They represent Georgia in foreign relations. The constitution defines the presidential office as "the guarantor of the country’s unity and national independence."

Mikheil Saakashvili Georgian-Ukrainian politician, President of Georgia and Governor of Odessa

Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician. He was the third President of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Oblast. He is the founder and former chairman of the United National Movement party.

Contents

The Central Election Commission has registered 3,458,020 voters. [4] The election was observed by 14 international and 31 local organizations. [5] [6]

Pre-election process

The pre-election process has principally been monitored by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as well as several local watchdogs. The PACE observers have reported “little or no improvement” in the political climate since the January 5 presidential election which was held in the tense aftermath of the November 2007 political crisis and resulted in the reelection of Mikheil Saakashvili to his second term. The monitoring mission has noted that “the political climate is still dominated by a lack of trust and absence of constructive dialogue between the authorities and the opposition”, one result of this being “the failure of the electoral reform that the authorities and the opposition agreed upon in the aftermath of the November 2007 events.” [7]

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 47-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Council of Europe is an older and wider circle of nations than the 28-member European Union – it includes, for example, Russia and Turkey among its member states – and oversees the European Court of Human Rights.

2007 Georgian demonstrations

In 2007, a series of anti-government protests took place across Georgia. The demonstrations peaked on 2 November 2007, when 50,000–100,000 rallied in downtown Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. People protested against the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili. Protests triggered by detention of Georgian politician Irakli Okruashvili on charges of extortion, money laundering, and abuse of office during his tenure as defense minister of the country were organized by the National Council, an ad-hoc coalition of ten opposition parties, and financed by the media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili. Demonstrations occurred both in September and November 2007 and were initially largely peaceful. The protests went downhill by 6 November 2007, but turned violent the next day when the police, using heavy-handed tactics, including tear gas and water cannon, unblocked Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's main boulevard, dislodged the protesters from the territory adjoining to the House of Parliament, and prevented the demonstrators from resuming the protests. The government accused the Russian secret services of being involved in an attempted coup d'état and declared a nationwide state of emergency later that day which lasted until late 16 November 2007.

The amendments to the election code passed by the Parliament in March 2008 took into account recommendations made by the PACE, such as abolition of the additional voters’ lists and voter registration on polling day; lowering of the election threshold from 7% to 5%; the simplification and clarification of election related complaints and appeals procedures; the introduction of party representation in the District Election Commissions. However, the PACE noted that a number of its other recommendations remained unaddressed. [7]

This period has also witnessed significant reshuffle within the major political players. On February 29, 2008, the moderate Republican Party of Georgia left the nine-party opposition coalition, which spearheaded anti-government protests in November 2007, announcing that they would run independently for the parliamentary election, targeting mainly moderate and undecided voters. [8] On the other hand, the opposition New Rights party, which had distanced themselves from the 2007 demonstrations, now joined the nine-party coalition under an election bloc named United Opposition–New Rights. [9]

Another key event, which sent shockwaves across Georgia’s political scene on April 21, 2008, was the refusal by Nino Burjanadze, the outgoing parliamentary chairwoman and Saakashvili’s ally, to run on the president-led United National Movement (UNM) ticket, citing an absence of consensus within the UNM leadership regarding the party list. [10]

Nino Burjanadze Georgian politician

Nino Burjanadze is a Georgian politician and lawyer who served as Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia from November 2001 to June 2008. As the first woman she has served as the acting head of state of Georgia twice; the first time from 23 November 2003 to 25 January 2004 in the wake of Eduard Shevardnadze's resignation during the Rose Revolution, and again from 25 November 2007 to 20 January 2008, when Mikheil Saakashvili stepped down to rerun in the early presidential elections. She withdrew into opposition to Saakashvili as the leader of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia party in 2008. In October 2013, she ran for president in the October 2013 election. She ran against 22 candidates and ended third with 10 percent of the vote.

United National Movement (Georgia) political party

United National Movement is the opposition political party in the nation of Georgia.

Contending parties

Three election blocs and nine parties are contesting this election. These are: [11]

The Central Election Commission refused 37 political parties to register for the election for various irregularities in their submissions. [12]

Events

On May 5, 2008, the United States-based company Greenberg Quinlan Rosner published results of the United National Movement-commissioned survey according to which the UNM had the support of 44 percent, compared to 12 percent for the United Opposition Council, 11 percent for the Christian Democratic Movement, 7 percent for the Labour Party of Georgia, and 4 percent for the Republican Party; 16 percent were undecided. [13]

On election day 21 May, there was a shooting incident in the village Khurcha near Zugdidi in the west of the country. Three people were taken to hospital. Close-up footage of the shooting was captured by a TV crew from Rustavi 2. President Saakashvili claimed that the shooting had been an attempt to disrupt the election. An investigation was carried out by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee within hours, and concluded that the shooting had most likely been carried out by Georgian forces. [14]

On 22 May 2008, OSCE observers stated that the poll was an improvement from the presidential election held earlier that year, but that it was stilled marred by a number of imperfections. [15] Early results indicated that UNM had 63% and the United Opposition Council 13%, but the opposition's partial results from Tbilisi gave the UOC 40% and UNM 32%. The first results indicate that the Christian Democrats and the Labour Party also cleared the threshold. [16]

According to preliminary final results, the UNM got 59.5%, the UOC 17.7%, the CDM 8.3% and the Labour Party 7.6%. The UNM may thus have retained its two-thirds majority, but as full seat results are not yet available, this is not yet confirmed. [17] Turnout was 55%. [18]

The Joint Opposition and the Labour Party have announced they will boycott parliament which held its inaugural session on June 7, 2008, while the CDM refused to join them. [19] [20]

Results

PartyVotes%Seats
United National Movement 1,050,23759.18119
United Opposition-National Forum-New Rights 314,66817.7317
Christian Democratic Party 153,6348.666
Labour Party 132,0927.446
Republican Party 67,0373.782
New Rights Alliance-Topadze Industrialists16,4400.930
Christian-Democratic Alliance15,8390.890
Georgian Politics 8,2310.460
Traditionalists Party-Our Georgia-Women's Party7,8800.440
Union of Georgian Sportsmen3,3080.190
National Movement of Radical Democrats of Georgia3,1800.180
Our Country2,1010.120
Invalid/blank votes56,099––
Total1,850,407100150
Registered voters/turnout3,465,73653.39–
Source: IFES

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References

  1. ↑ Parliamentary Elections Set for May 21. Election.ge. March 21, 2008.
  2. ↑ Georgia to hold early elections BBC News, 8 November 2007
  3. ↑ english@peopledaily.com.cn (2008-01-06). "Saakashvili wins Georgia's presidential election - People's Daily Online". English.people.com.cn. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
  4. ↑ Total Number of voters, Central Election Commission, Georgia. Accessed on May 10, 2008.
  5. ↑ The List of International Non-Governmental Organizations registered at the Central Election Commission of Georgia for May 21, 2008 Parliamentary Elections, Central Election Commission, Georgia. Accessed on May 10, 2008.
  6. ↑ The List of local Non-Governmental Organizations registered at the Central Election Commission of Georgia for May 21, 2008 Parliamentary Elections, Central Election Commission, Georgia. Accessed on May 10, 2008.
  7. 1 2 Honouring of obligations and commitments by Georgia. Information note by the co-rapporteurs on their fact-finding visit to Tbilisi (26-27 March 2008). Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 9, 2008.
  8. ↑ New Opposition Configuration Emerges Ahead of Polls. Civil Georgia, February 29, 2008.
  9. ↑ Three Blocs, Nine Parties Run in Parliamentary Polls. Civil Georgia, April 8, 2008.
  10. ↑ Georgia: In Surprise Move, Burjanadze Says She Won't Seek Reelection. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 22, 2008.
  11. ↑ Party Lists. Civil Georgia. April 24, 2008.
  12. ↑ List of the Parties which have been refused for the registration to participate in the upcoming Parliamentary Elections May 21, 2008. Central Election Commission, Georgia. Accessed on May 10, 2008.
  13. ↑ Survey Shows United National Movement with Majority Support in Republic of Georgia Parliamentary Race, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. May 5, 2008.
  14. ↑ "Questions Raised by the Khurcha Incident". Human Rights Information and Documentation Center. 2008-05-24. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  15. ↑ "Concerns raised over Georgia poll". BBC News. May 23, 2008.
  16. ↑ "News - World - Georgian leader set for poll win". B92. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
  17. ↑ "Opposition in Georgien droht mit Parlamentsboykott «". Diepresse.com. 2008-05-23. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
  18. ↑ english@peopledaily.com.cn (2008-05-23). "Election commission: Saakashvili's party wins Georgian election - People's Daily Online". English.people.com.cn. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
  19. ↑ "Georgien: Opposition ruft zu Protesten auf «". Diepresse.com. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
  20. ↑ Werdigier, Julia. "Opposition bloc to boycott Georgia's parliament to protest governing party's big election win". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2013-01-07.
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