Disgraceful Elections in the Parliament

The Dilis Gazeti; The Alia

(Tbilisi. November 10. Civil Georgia) – For the first time in the Georgian parliamentary history woman is the Parliamentary Chairman. Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee Nino Burjanadze was announced elected yesterday.

The Resonance considers that historical day in the Parliament was the most disgraceful day at the same time. Election bulletins were faked in the executive governmental branch. Member of the election commission found out that all the bulletins were numbered.

The paper talks about several versions of why the falsification might have occurred. According to one of them, somebody wanted to control whether supporters of one particular candidate were in deed voting for him (the ballot was secrete); according to the second version, it was the imitation of falsification aiming to wreck election; manager of the Parliamentary apparatus having supervised printing of the bulletins said the fact was a provocation against her.  

“In any case at least one of the apparatus members has performed the falsification thus its manager is to share the responsibility”, the Resonance assumes.

The young reformers team, former Parliamentary Chairman Zurab Zhvania among them, indirectly blame Vazha Lortkipanidze, one of the candidates on the position, in making an attempt to fake the elections. According to ex-Justice Minister, MP Mikheil Saakashvili, whoever was intending to purchase votes he needed to control them (the Resonance). Even though the Alia is not usually fond of the reformers team, agrees with the idea and says big amount of money was brought to the Parliament. The paper also talks about close relations of Vazha Lortkipanidze and well-known businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili.

The Resonance also presumes that the faction Citizens’ Union had the most chances to fake the elections since it has still sustained complete monopoly over the Parliamentary apparatus. Head of the human rights defense committee, member of the CUG Elene Tevdoradze states her faction did not need to mark the bulletins because of obvious superiority in the elections (the CUG supported Nino Burjanadze).
 
The paper points out that “whatever the reason of falsification was the fact that the prosecutor’s office is looking for a criminal in the legislative governmental branch is very shameful for Georgia”.

With the initiative of head of the election commission Vakhtang Khmaladze the bulletins were overprinted in the session hall witnessing all the MPs.

After two rounds of elections at about 4.00 a.m. Nino Burjanadze was approved on the position of Parliamentary Chairman. She was elected by 129 votes. “Exhausted MPs marked the appointment of a woman on the post for the first time in the Georgian history with short applause and even gave her a beforehand prepared bunch of flowers”, the Resonance tells.