BBC Monitoring Trans Caucasus Unit
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
Wednesday
Georgian opposition TV compares Armenian, Georgian elections
By BBC Monitoring
Georgia is "losing" its status of a "beacon of democracy" in the South Caucasus due to its recent presidential election, and Armenia could take the leadership slot in the region, Georgia's pro-opposition Rustavi-2 TV reported on 11 December.
In its flagship 1700gmt newscast on 11 December, Rustavi-2 compared statements made by the US State Department about Georgia's 2018 presidential election and Armenia's 2018 parliamentary election.
The channel said that the USA praised the 9 December Armenian election process, saying that it "enjoyed broad public trust and respected fundamental freedoms", while the State Department said that it shared "concerns" expressed by international and domestic observers "about instances of misuse of state resources for partisan campaigning" during the 28 November Georgian elections.
"These actions are not consistent with Georgia's commitment to fully fair and transparent elections," Rustavi-2 cited the US State Department as saying. The channel noted that although the election was described as "competitive", the USA was concerned about "misuse of state resources".
Rustavi-2 also quoted Chatham House think thank as saying that the Georgian election was "marred by physical violence, vote-buying, misuses of state resources and a substantial imbalance in donations between the parties". Chatham House was also quoted as saying that Georgia's image abroad was "damaged".
"We see that the reputation that Georgian people have earned for our state with so much efforts and pain has been foolishly wasted," Rustavi-2 showed opposition leader Grigol Vashadze saying.
The independent candidate endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream, Salome Zourabichvili, defeated united opposition candidate and former President Mikheil Saakashvili's ally Grigol Vashadze in Georgia's hotly contested runoff vote. Some international observers said that the runoff "was competitive and candidates were able to campaign freely". However, they noted "with concern instances of misuse of administrative resources, undue pressure on voters and intimidation".
A snap parliamentary election was held in Armenia on 9 December. Acting Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan's My Step alliance scored a resounding victory, garnering over 70 per cent of the vote.
Armenia's claim for regional leadership
A number of Georgian pundits also think that the latest presidential election signified a backslide for Georgia's democracy.
"If you read [the US statements] you will see the following difference: about Armenia, it says that the election was mainly democratic, while about Georgia, it says that our election was mainly non-democratic," analyst Nodar Kharshiladze told Rustavi-2. "This is a serious step backward. We are no longer the leader even in this conflict-ruined region," he said.
Former Georgian Ambassador to the United States Batu Kutelia said that the ongoing developments in Armenia were reminiscent of the situation in Georgia in 2003. Kutelia was alluding to the Rose Revolution that brought former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement (UNM) to power in 2004. A year later, US President Bush called Georgia a "beacon of liberty" in the region.
Armenia is now experiencing something like what Georgia had in 2003, he said. People are waking up and no one knows where this democratic process could go, but Armenia has the chance to carryout real democratic processes, Kutelia was shown saying.
Georgian ruling party's view
The ruling Georgian Dream party disagrees, however, with the strong criticism of the election.
It is clear that the election campaign was "polarised", Dimitri Tskitishvili, Georgian Dream MP and member of the parliament's foreign relations committee, was shown saying. "However, it was confirmed by the international community that still the election was democratic and I cannot say that we failed to pass the test," he said.