Evolutsia.Net

Michael Cecire
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Georgian political development indeed has a long, long way to go. I needn’t harp on about the litany of lies and misrepresentations that seem to regularly fall out of the mouths of certain opposition leaders – I think I have done quite enough of that for now. No, instead I am referring to President Saakashvili’s head-in-your-hands-evoking comments over the question of voter thresholds in the Tbilisi mayoral election.

President Saakashvili said on December 5 that a 50% threshold for electing Tbilisi mayor could have helped a candidate to win the post through, what he called, “hate votes”.

That’s right, allowing a higher threshold – a not uncommon percentage, in fact – would trigger ‘hate votes.’ Why is that?

“If a candidate fails to garner more votes than others and hopes to get more support in the second round by telling voters: ‘although we do not like each other, let’s get together and get united to defeat [a candidate who garnered most votes in the first round] with hate votes’, then let’s think about what can a candidate, who wins through hate votes, create?” Saakashvili said.

Ahhh! So, it would be hate votes because the opposition will rally around a single candidate? Very interesting. Except, of course, that this is patently ridiculous. Branding competition as ‘hate votes’ is startlingly disingenuous. Not only is the ruling party going back on its word to the international community about electing all mayors, Saakashvili also seems to be publicly having doubts about direct elections even in Tbilisi. Why? Because he fears it will be used as a stepping stone for further political ambitions (oh no!).

Saakashvili also said he had “lot’s of doubts” about appropriateness of direct election of Tbilisi mayor as well. He said that for those who viewed Tbilisi mayoral post as a starting point for then gaining more political power in the government, such mayor, he said, would fail to tackle the capital city’s communal issues, suggesting that the post was not a political one.

Didn’t Saakashvili graduate from Columbia? This is how politics works. And unlike him, his successors will not (or at least should not) have the option of coming to power outside of political mechanisms – in revolutions and such. Where else should they come from, if not from lesser elected offices? Shouldn’t their record as mayor help the electorate evaluate their candidacy? Isn’t how that is supposed to work?

I fear that there tends to be a near-universal misunderstanding of how democracy works among the political class in Georgia. While a politican’s inclination towards the preservation of their power is a pretty predictable and universal characteristic, many politicians in this part of the world somehow feel justified in curbing political freedoms with some poor excuse or another. For the most part, the opposition hasn’t been much better. Instead of creating solid policy positions and approaching the issues in a sober manner, they have been shrill and hyperbolic, often sounding more anti-Saakashvili than pro-Georgia.

High expectations for democracy takes generations to cultivate, for sure, but that doesn’t give our friends in Georgia a pass while they dither and squabble over palaces and offices. I still await the moment when a true moderate joins the political process and advocates not for their own self-image, but for the progress of Georgia.