Category: 7 November

Dirty politics at play as rumours replace fact in mayoral election

March 10, 2010 by georgiamedia

There are clear signs that someone, though it is not clear who, is out to manufacture a split between Levan Gachechiladze (pictured, below, right) and Irakli Alasania over the Tbilisi mayoral elections.

Today the Alliance for Georgia have been forced to deny that Gachechiladze and Alasania had a stand up fight yesterday: in fact, as Alasania was at a family funeral in Samregelo and Gachechiladze was in Tbilisi there was no chance of them meeting.

And Alliance member Koka Guntsadze has also been moved to deny reports that he has left the Alliance after a meeting with Gachechiladze: "The information is groundless. I have not left the Alliance, and I am not going to. As for my meeting with Levan Gachechiladze, he is my friend and I will always meet my friends."

Gachechiladze and Alasania, while very different characters, have been close political associates over the last year, despite their different approaches: the decisions of Alasania to launch his own political party, Our Georgia Free Democrats, while Gachechiladze looked to mobilse wider civil society through "Defend Georgia" were consciously co-ordinated and deliberate.

And splitting the two would be a big prize for anyone determined to either clear the way for the government by hobbling the opposition or seeking to weaken and marginalise the electoral approach to opposition progress advocated by Alasania.

Of course, even if all the stories of division are made up, the mere fact that they have enough credibility that they have to be denied is good news for Tbilisi's incumbent mayor Gigi Ugulava. He, assisted by a huge inflow of state money and expert political advice, has successfully projected himself as someone above the day to day squabbles of politics and who is only interested in Tbilisi.

It is fair to say that, despite the fact that he widely regarded as the most hardline and authoritarian of the ruling United National Movement's leaders - even said to be the man who demanded the police attack peaceful demonstators on 7 November 2007, against the advice of the regime hardman Vano Merabishvili - Ugulava is currently leading a charmed life and that the opposition have yet to even lay a glove on him in the fight for the mayoralty.

Uguglava's strategy will no doubt be to stay out of the election battle for as long as he can - as he is under no pressure while the opposition is seen to squabble. It is little wonder that Alasania is so opposed to the idea of waiting another month before declaring who the opposition's candidate should be: that would be a month when Ugulava doled out the goodies while the opposition slugged it out amongst itself.

There are clear signs that many in the wider Tbilisi opposition community see the danger that now confronts the opposition: having, somewhat arrogantly, assumed that they only needed to turn up in the capital to win, the opposition now faces losing an election - and badly - to the UNM in what is meant to be the bastion of the anti-Saakashvili forces.

Things might be so bad for the opposition that the UNM could ease up on cheating and intimidation: simply relying on their media lie machine to whip home the voters.

That, at least, must be one of the reasons why so many opposition groups today issued an appeal for the politicians to unite behind Alasania.

"No time is left for delayed negotiations and consultations, which causes nihilism and confusion in the society. We appeal to all opposition parties to support Irakli Alasania in the elections, as a joint candidate is the way towards a victory," says the joint statement.

The list of signatories is impressive not necessarily because they represent a hidden army of thousands of supporters - joining an expliciting political grouping in Tbilisi is to risk one's job and livlihood and so many steer clear, but because it includes some - but not all - of the civil society groups most often identified as least willing to look for centre-ground solutions and compromises, the very ground that Alasania seeks to take the opposition into as a way of maximising votes.

 The signatories include the Georgian Academy; Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights; the Movement for 7 November; the Movement ‘Why?’; the Democratic Institute; the coalition For Our Rights; organization ‘Galavani’, the United Students’ Front; the Center for Ethnic and Confessional Relations; the Center for Civil and Political Rights and; the Center for Militants’ Rights

Speaker challenged to let opposition MP speak in parliamentary debate

February 8, 2010 by georgiamedia

Spring sittings of the Georgian parliament have begun and there is an expectation that (as in previous years) President Mikheil Saakashvili will address members.

But if does he could face a sharp retort from independent opposition MP Gia Tsagareishhvili about why there has been no criminal investigation into police violence on 7 November 2007 (when the police attacked peaceful demonstrators in Tbilisi and special forces later stormed the Imedi TV station after it broadcast pictures of the police attack).

Tsagareishvili is also seeking answers from the president about what 400 million Georgian Laris (about $235 million) from the government's contingency fund have been spent on.

However parliamentary rules may be used to simply bar the opposition MP from speaking. Parliament's standing orders specify that only faction leaders and committee chairs can speak in the debate that follows a presidential address. To get the chance to speak Tsagareishvili needs to be called by the speaker - Saakashvili loyalist Davit Bakradze (pictured), reports Gruzia Online.

Zviadist "Round Table" protest at Imedi

February 1, 2010 by georgiamedia

The Zviadist "Round Table" party are to hold a protest at Imedi today over what they say is an orchestrated campaign against Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, son of the late president Zviad Gamsakhurdia and currently in detention facing charges for attempted murder and treason.

The party are protesting against the planned broadcast of "Time of Truth": a programme (the format is known as "Moment of Truth" in the United States) where contestants are asked intimate questions while attached to a lie detector.

On 2 February the station proposes to broadcast an episode with Sopo Chikviladze, the ex-wife of Tsotne Gamsakhurdia.

Tsotne Gamsakhurdia was arrested in October 2009 for the alleged attempted murder of his neighbour Davit Bajelidze. But Gamsakhurdia's lawyers say Bajelidze denies that their client was involved in the incident.

In recent days the authorities have announced they are reviving a treason charge from November 2007 when Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, along with a number of other opponents of the regime was alleged to be spying for Russia.

At the time President Mikheil Saakashvili justified the violent attack on peaceful demonstrators in Tbilisi and the subsequent assault on the Imedi TV station by special forces by claiming their was a Russian plot to remove him from office. So far the authorities have never dared to test this claim in open court - even in Georgia, where the judges are notoriously politically compliant with the regime's wishes.

Shades of 7 November as Tsotne Gamsakhurdia accused of being a spy

January 28, 2010 by georgiamedia

Authorities in Tbilisi have accused Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, son of Georgia's first president Zvaid Gamasakhurdia, of being a Russian spy, reports Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

In doing so they are reviving a charge from November 2007 when, in the aftermath of police and special forces attacks on peaceful opposition demonstrators and the then pro-opposition Imedi TV station, the authorities accused a large number of opposition figures of either being Russian agents or plotting coups.

Tsotne Gamsakhurdia is currently held in prison having been accused of attempted murder of a neighbour in autumn 2009. He has always denied the charge, saying it was a fabrication designed to keep him held as a political hostage.