OPPOSITION, GOVT RUNNING LOW-KEY CAMPAIGN IN MARNEULI AND JAVAKHETI
Daily Georgian Times
May 12 2008
Georgia
"An opposition that intends to cooperate with ethnic minorities
always faces a dilemma. It may endanger the votes gained from the
Georgian electorate."
Nearly 60% of ethnic minorities living in Georgia claim not to be
involved whatsoever in the Georgian political process. Although many
(particularly in Khakheti) expressed an interest in local and national
politics, for the Armenian, Greek, Azeri, Russian, Ukrainian, Kurdish
and other ethnic groups residing in Georgia its difficult to know
how to get involved.
With financial support from the EU, the Horizon Foundation conducted
a survey in Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions of
Georgia and found that many minority groups feel they are prevented
from expressing their political will due to various reasons:
age, lack of time, information, lack of trust in the authorities,
etc. Additionally, they do not know Georgian language and only a small
portion are involved in election campaigns as observers, coordinators,
or election commission members. This is mainly due to the lack of
Georgian language knowledge and the low education levels.
The project "integration of ethnic minorities and freedom
of expression" carried out the survey and published it in the
#9-information ballot in 2007. Representatives of ethnic minorities
like S. Khubaev, M. Mamedov underlined the fact that activists of
political parties remember them only in the run-up to the elections
and they give promises to gain votes. It is better to be acquainted
with their programs and action plans than listen to recriminations
and offensive statements.
M. Balabanov, 28, is Greek by origin. He does not participate in
elections because he is apolitical, as he says. He told The Georgian
Times that several years ago, he took part in voting but he was
disappointed. According to him, participation in elections is just
"a bad habit." When asked whether a passive position in election
process is a bad habit or not, he answered "no." He says it does not
really matter whether he will go to the polls or not, because the
authorities will receive they results they like anyway.
The results of elections conducted over the past 10 years show a
stunningly high turnout of voters from the primarily ethnic minority
regions. These regions tend to vote in favor of the candidates of the
ruling party- regardless of who is in power at the time. This trend
continued in the presidential elections on January 5, 2008.
In 2008, during the snap presidential elections, Mikheil Saakashvili
gained the highest percentage of votes in Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti. In Gardabani district M.Saakashvili got 70.72%
of votes, in Marneuli 88.36%, in Bolnisi 93.79%, in Dmanisi 81.04%; in
Tsalka 70.14%, in Akhaltsikhe 81.39%, in Adigeni 79.04%, in Aspindza
71.9%, in Akhalkalaki 83.04%. The highest percentage of ruling party
votes came from Ninotsminda (90.18%), while the number of Saakashvili’s
supporters ranged between 27.07% and 66.97% in other regions (except
Samegrelo, Shuakhevi, Tsageri and territories surrounding Liakhvi
and Upper Abkhazia).
The Georgian Times focused on Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti,
regions settled by national minorities. The turnover in these regions
is always high. Why did the majority of local population vote for
Saakashvili?
"Generally it happens this way throughout the whole world. Ethnic
minorities and small groups always support those who are already in
power. It does not matter whether this government will solve all their
problems or not," Marina Elbakidze, psychologist, expert in conflict
issues, and a representative of Institute for Peace, Democracy and
Development told The Georgian Times. She works on election issues
for national minorities.
The expert notes that the majority of people in Samtskhe-Javakheti
and Kvemo Kartli region do not think that either the authorities or
opposition can solve their problems but given the choice, they prefer
to vote for those who they already know. "There is the factor of fear
as well. Some of them think that they may be punished if the ruling
party candidate does not win," states Marina Elbakidze.
Agit Mirzoev, executive director of the civil movement Multi-Ethnic
Georgia, believes that votes gathered from such regions are used to
manipulate election results. That is, data from those regions goes
to the CEC only after the Commission collects results from all the
other provinces.
"Nowadays Adjara is back undre Tbilisi’s control, but the tactics
remained the same. The government changes but the catalyst remains,"
Agit Mirzoev said.
Marina Elbakidze declares that another reason concerns the passive
pre-election campaigning by the opposition in Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti. She says that especially in Javakheti, the
opposition had no representative to work with local population
and present their program. Unlike them, Mikheil Saakashvili’s
representatives worked hard in this region. "It is another issue
whether the methods were acceptable or not. It is necessary to have
more contact with the population and more influence respectively,"
Elbakidze says.
According to Agit Mirzoev another reason for the voting track of ethnic
minorities in Georgia is their clannish policy. "Clannish policy always
played a significant role especially in Javakheti region. It is enough
to only negotiate with several leading members of the clan and you
will gain many votes," says Mirzoev, who adds that the opposition did
not hold such negotiations or offer anything interesting to this group.
"The authorities as well as opposition know the psychology of voters
quite well. The opposition that intends to cooperate with ethnic
minorities always faces dilemma. It may endanger the votes gained from
the Georgian electorate. It is an unpleasant reality of our society,"
Mirzoev noted.
According to him, Multi-Ethnic Georgia placed nearly 200 observers
in Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti during the presidential
elections. They covered 80% of election precincts in these two
regions. The observers identified that the government as well as
opposition representatives fully ignored the interests of ethnic
minorities. They did not try to find a common ground with minorities
at all.
"As you know the language barrier still exists. Despite that, neither
information segments was represented in a language understandable
for ethnic minorities," says Mirzoev.
Experts say that the attitude towards ethnic minorities will not change
without relevant political will and approach, because politicians
only care about these two regions when it is time for elections.