Category: elections

Alasania says he wants alliance with Gachechiladze but his priority is talking to voters

March 11, 2010 by georgiamedia

Irakli Alasania has again stated that he wants a strong alliance between himself and Levan Gachechiladze but that he thinks the key priority is to talk to the voters of Tbilisi, rather than spend more time arguing about internal opposition agreement, so he will not be withdrawing his candidacy for the mayor of the capital regardless of the circumstances.

Speaking before meeting representatives of the Ossetian community in Tbilisi the leader of the Alliance for Georgia stated "All kinds of rumors about my withdrawal of candidacy to anyone’s benefit are baseless. I have already started election campaign and nothing will change in this decision.

"I must speak with the voters about the issues I intend to do if I win in the elections and why they must vote for me."

Signs, today, are that an agreement between Gachechiladze, who was the main opposition candidate for president in 2008 and who topped the poll in Tbilisi, and Alasania are close, prompting angry comments from the supporters of the idea of an opinion poll/door-to-door survey about Alasania's confederates in the Alliance for Georgia who they regard as having wrecked an earlier attempt at unity on a wide basis.

In a commentary generally negative about Alasania but focusing on the opposition's need to break out of endless internal wrangles and actually start canvassing for votes, Professor Ghia Nodia says that seeking an agreement that included Zurab Noghaideli would likely hobble any opposition campaign as it would suggest both a weakness of democratic intention and ambivanence towards Russian interference and occupation. As Alasania has staked his claim on the basis of both opposition to revolutionary short-cuts and a patient building of national unity and western orientation he would be destoying two of his key electoral assets in pursuit of unity.

But right now there can be no doubt that incumbent mayor Gigi Ugulava has the upper hand: if the opposition can start to offer a coherent challenge on the issues facing ordinary Tbilisuri then that might change, and quickly. But everyday Ugulava's opponents talks to - or fights with - itself is another step closer to victory for Ugulava and the United National Movement.

Claims of a split between Irakli Alasania and Levan Gachechiladze "government lies"

March 10, 2010 by georgiamedia

The media spokesperson for Irakli Alasania's Our Georgia Free Democrats has dismissed claims that former presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze had fallen out with Alasania as "not true" and part of a "government campaign" to divide and discredit the opposition.

Victor Dolidze said that the Alasania's three-party Alliance for Georgia was still keen to forge opposition unity: "The Alliance has not yet ended the process of negotiations. We are ready for talks with any political party in order to agree on a joint candidate [for mayor of Tbilisi]. All parties have their candidates, but the important thing is a rating. Today Irakli Alasania has the highest rating."

Alasania and Gachechiladze are meeting today after speculation that the former presidential candidate to throw his hat into the ring as a potential "unity" candidate.

Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation statement with English subtitles

March 10, 2010 by georgiamedia

This is Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation statement on 8 November 2007 - for the first time (we believe) with English subtitles.

The contrast with the statement of the previous day (see here) could hardly be clearer.

As is so often the case with Saakashvili when he felt weak (as on 7 November) he appeared contrite and conciliatory, saying the day before that he thought the vast majority of the opposition were patriots and not involved in any foreign conspiracy.

Now that his police force have beaten the opposition off the streets, smashed up the country's most popular TV station and demonstrated that they are able to act above the law in association with masked and armed gangs, he feels confident enough to change his story and label the events of the previous day as a defence of democracy against a pre-planned foreign attack.

The anti-pluralist mindset of the president is also apparent: he regards the fact that no-one of any significance disagrees with him or is able to exert significant influence in the state is a good thing. Overall the speech feels more like the Czar telling his subjects how good he is to them rather than that of a democratic president asking for a new endorsement.

Once again we have used Civil.ge's translation. Let us know of any errors or omissions.

Update: Unfortunately the first upload suffered from sychronisation problems, hopefully the version here now is better, but the poor quality of the original video remains - though we have cleaned up the sound somewhat. If you want your own copy you can download an AVI file from here.

Levan Gachechiladze opts to delay decision

March 9, 2010 by georgiamedia

Levan Gachechiladze has said that, contrary to suggestions yesterday, he will not make an announcement about his views on the mayoral election in Tbilisi today.

Yesterday the expectation was he would make an announcement on whether he would support the initiative of the Movement for a Fair Georgia, the Conservatives and the People's Party to hold an opinion poll and announce their joint candidate for mayor on 9 April, or throw his weight behind Irakli Alasania from the Alliance for Georgia.

InterPressNews quotes him as telling journalists "I don’t know whether I will take part in the social survey or not. I came to Tbilisi yesterday and I will observe the processes. I expect to make a decision in several days on participation in local self-governance elections."
 

Irakli Alasania comments on his campaign and Nino Bujanadze's trip to Moscow

March 8, 2010 by georgiamedia

Irakli Alsania, leader of the Alliance for Georgia and candidate for mayor of Tbilisi says that, although he has little money with which to mount an election campaign, he is picking up volunteers who are getting his message out door-to-door in Tbilisi.

Currently the "air war" - the electoral battle in the mass media, particularly the broadcasters - is dominated by incumbent mayor Gigi Ugulava while the opposition seem only to gain coverage for the interminable dispute over should be the single opposition candidate for the mayor's office.

But if the opposition can make inroads in the "ground war" - the hard slog of door-to-door talking and voter mobilisation they could begin to significantly dent Ugulava's undoubted current advantage.

Alasania is having to walk a fine line: pressing home his status as what most agree is the opposition's front-runner to squeeze other opposition candidates' votes while avoiding getting personally drawn into a slanging match with anyone other than the mayor - who has managed to stay above the fray precisely because of the opposition's internal divisions.

Now, says Alasania, in an interview with the Georgian Times, that has to change:

My political force, the Alliance, and myself as a candidate are going to be fully involved in campaigning, in making people understand that we are offering a change, a change for better. We are going to do a better job for them when we are the local government, in the Mayor’s office. For me these few months before the elections will be about campaigning and bringing change to the population.

...at this point we are financing the campaign with our own resources and we do not have much of an operation in the regions now for that reason. But I want to declare that we have a lot more volunteers working for us now. Door to door and town hall meetings will be important for our campaign, and these do not require much money. It requires just will and effort from the political side to be engaged in a direct dialogue with the population of Tbilisi.
 

Asked about fromer parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze's trip to Moscow, the former Georgian ambassador to the UN doubted it would have any lasting impact on Russian-Georgian relations:

I think the Georgian-Russian relationship has a future, but it will be a long time before we start political talks on the most sensitive issue for Georgia, which is the fulfillment by the Russian Federation of the agreement of August 12 2008 which requires them to leave Georgian territory. I do believe that political talks can lead naturally to the fulfillment of this agreement, but first and foremost I think we have at this point to concentrate all our efforts on containing Russia, not soliciting more aggressive behaviour from it, and start building our relationship with the Abkhazian and Ossetian population step by step. At this point I do not see any breakthrough possible through talks between the opposition and the Government of the Russian Federation. When we are in government after wining the elections, then of course we will start cementing our foreign policy priorities towards Russia as well.