At last vote counts in Georgia have been finished. But the matter is that even before it Georgian president M. Saakashvili claimed the victory of his ruling party!
Moreover, now not only local opposition’s leaders complain of irregularities in both the pre-election campaign and the vote during the parliamentary elections, but also international election monitors agree that the elections, while improves over past years, have been still far from perfect.
For example, the OSCE says that its observers have had to confirm “numerous allegations of intimidation”. Other Western observers note significant procedural shortcomings with the counting and tabulation of the vote.
And so it becomes clear for everyone that nothing has been changed in Georgia since 2003, when such democrat and reformer of Western style as M. Saakashvili came to power, overthrowing the government of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Thus, unfortunately this election in Georgia was in the same tradition as bad past elections. And how can we say of improving the situation in Georgia since Shevardnadze’s times if even country’s parliamentary election continues to suffer from ballot-stuffing for the government and the suppression of votes for the opposition?
Maybe, we should be glad to see even such “progress” as so quick Saakashvili’s declaration of the poll, compared with Shevardnadze, who had announced the results of election voting several weeks after! It is good progress for Georgian democracy, isn’t it?