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| Rightist Opposition’s leader Davit Gamkrelidze says society needs an opposition in the Parliament. |
The Rightist Opposition – Industrialists-New Rights coalition is the only opposition parties which could possibly clear the 7% barrier that would allow for it to earn seats in the Parliament. According to the CEC’s preliminary results, the Rightist Opposition received 6.4% of the total vote. The CEC Chairman Zurab Tchiaberashvili warned that these are “very preliminary results, which are most likely to change after more data from the regions is submitted to the CEC.”
According to these preliminary results, the Labor Party came in third with 4.47% followed by the Freedom (Tavisupleba) Movement (4.83%), the Unity party (2.85%), the NDP-Traditionalists (2.63%) and finally the Revival Union party, who secured only about 0.64% of the total votes.
The preliminary results do not include votes from the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. It is expected that support for the party of Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze, the Revival Union, will increase after results from the region of Adjara are submitted to the CEC.
Meanwhile, the NGO, International Society for Fair Elections and Society (ISFED) which observed the elections, announced results of the parallel vote tabulation (PVT), which was conducted by ISFED. The PVT, conducted during the disputed November 2 elections by the same organization, played a key role in exposing the manipulation of election results by the previous authorities.
According to the PVT results, only the National Movement-Democrats and the Rightist Opposition managed to clear the 7% threshold necessary to secure seats in the new Parliament.
Below are the PVT results:
1. National Movement – Democrats – 67.78%
2. The Rightist Opposition – Industrialists-New Rights – 7.75%
3. The Revival Union – 6.6%
4. The Labor Party – 6.14%
5. Freedom (Tavisupleba) Movement – 4.72%
6. NDP – Traditionalists – 2.38%
7. Unity – 2.19%
According to the ISFED, the margin of error of PVT results is between 0.2-0.5%.
“We hope that the official results will coincide with the PVT ones and that the authorities will not manipulate elections results,” Tamar Zhvania of ISFED said on March 29.
“The PVT results showed that fears over the potential of a one-party parliament were ungrounded. People proved that they want to see the opposition in the Parliament,” Davit Gamkrelidze, one of the leaders of the Rightists Opposition told reporters.
The Rightist Opposition coalition unites two opposition parties: the New Rights and the Industry will Save Georgia. The New Rights is led by David Gamkrelidze, longtime head and founder of Aldagi, an insurance company that has grown to be one of Georgia’s biggest businesses. The Industrialists party is led by the Georgian beer magnate Gogi Topadze and other older-generation businessmen.
If official results coincide with those of PVT, defiant Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze’s Revival party failed to gain any seats in the Parliament and this could potentially increase further the tension between Tbilisi and Batumi.
Another election observer organization, Fair Elections Foundation (FEF), also suggests that the Revival will fail to garner 7% of the votes, despite the party’s success in the Adjarian Autonomy.
The FEF, which dispatched observers throughout Georgia, conducted parallel vote tabulation only in Adjara. According to these PVT results, the Revival Union received 47.6% of the Adjarian votes, while Saakashvili’s National Movement-Democrats earned 44.3% of the regions support.
“According to our calculations, the votes received by the Revival Party in Adjara are not enough to clear the [mandatory] 7% threshold during the nation-wide polls,” Zaza Daraselia of FEF told reporters on March 29.
However, President Saakashvili told reporters, after the polls closed on March 28, that his National Movement-Democrats party lead not only in the polls throughout all of Georgia, but also in the Adjarian Autonomy.
“We have garnered twice as many votes as the local ruling party [Abashidze-backed Revival Union],” President Saakashvili said.
Georgia’s central authorities claim that the elections in Adjara were held “without widespread violations.”
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| Zurab Zhvania hailed Adjarian elections. |
“I am really glad to say that elections in Adjara were not held with widespread violations and that the elections process was far from alarming in the Autonomous Republic,” Zurab Zhvania told reporters after conducting overnight talks with Aslan Abashidze.
“The March 28 elections in Adjara were a great success,” he added.
The Prime Minister, who was dispatched to the troubled region to oversee the election process, said that “his mission to Adjara was fulfilled.”
Chairman of the outgoing Parliament Nino Burjanadze, who is one of the leaders of the ruling party, also hailed elections in Adjara and said on March 29 that, despite some procedural violations, the “polls in Adjara were more democratic than in previous years.”
However, preliminary assessments by international observers from the OSCE, Council of Europe and European Parliament are more critical.
The statement over the preliminary findings issued by the international observers on March 29 notes that “continued intimidation and physical abuse against opposition supporters and journalists in Adjara cast a shadow over the overall progress in the election process[in Georgia].”