Crisis in Adjara Threatens Elections
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| CEC Chief casts doubts over fair elections in Adjara, as armed vehicles are patrolling Batumi. Photo by Batumelebi newspaper. |
“If the current situation is maintained in Adjara, the region’s voters will have no possibility to make a free choice on March 28. Armed groups are seen in Adjara, attacks on election observers have been reported as well,” Chairman of the Central Election Commission Zurab Tchiaberashvili said on March 16.
OSCE long-term observers, who were deployed in Adjara Autonomous Republic to monitor pre-election situation, left the region after the crisis broke out between the central and local authorities.
“They are temporarily out of Adjara for security reasons and it is not decided yet whether they are going back or not,” Lucia Scotton, a spokesperson of the OSCE Election Observation Mission told Civil Georgia on March 16.
The representatives of the opposition movement Our Adjara claim the members of the opposition parties are under permanent.
“There were many cases of intimidation of our activists, who are the members of the precinct election commissions,” Tamaz Diasamidze of Our Adjara movement, which is a major opposition union in Adjara, told Civil Georgia.
However, CEC Chairman Zurab Tchiaberashvili ruled out the possibility of postponing the elections throughout Georgia, saying that this issue “has not been put on the agenda.”
“It is extremely undesirable, if one more region of Georgia does not participate in the elections. The central and the regional authorities should not permit disrupting of elections in Adjara,” one of the leaders of the Socialist opposition party Zakaria Kutsnashvili told Civil Georgia.
The bloc Industrialists – New Rights, which is also in the opposition, keeps the same position. “Adjara should participate in the elections. It is very important,” Davit Saganelidze of the New Rights said.
“Adjara has never held fair elections. We have numerous examples to prove it. Now, it is especially unimaginable to speak about democratic and fair elections there, since the voters and political parties have no possibility to campaign freely in the region,” Irakli Melashvili of the opposition election bloc National Democratic Party – Traditionalists told Civil Georgia.
Political circles in Tbilisi suggest that the election will formally held in Adjara, however results of the elections would be later canceled by the Central Election Commission.
According to the election code, if the total number of cancelled votes does not exceed 10%, the elections will be considered as valid. However, one important problem still remains –exact number of voters is unknown so far.
“It is rather difficult to cancel the Adjarian votes, when the exact number of voters throughout Georgia and particularly in Adjara, is unclear. So, if we do not know the exact number of voters, how should we define whether number of cancelled votes exceeds 10% or not?,” MP Vakhtang Khmaladze, who was actively engaged in drafting election code, told Civil Georgia.
Problems persist regarding the Adjarian voter lists. The Central Election Commission condemned the voter lists submitted by the Adjarian officials as “inaccurate.”
Many political analysts suggest that the recent escalation of tensions between Tbilisi and Batumi is related to forthcoming elections.
President Saakashvili also said at a news briefing on March 15 that the Adjarian authorities, “which are doomed for failure in the fair elections” triggered confrontation in order to “thwart elections in the region.”