GEORGIA: Electoral Lists & more – 10th Oct 2024

Gamarjobat from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Georgia Update from the 10th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Georgia.

The Georgian NGO Social Justice Center recently published an article analyzing the electoral lists of major parties. The analysis focused on the representation of women and ethnic minorities in the top twenty candidates of each party’s electoral list. Since the parliamentary elections on the 26th of October will be fully proportional, seats will be allocated based on the sequence of these lists.

Regarding female representation, the ruling party, the Georgian Dream or Otsneba, performed the worst, featuring only five women in its top twenty. The situation is better among the opposition parties. Leading in gender equality is Coalition Strong Georgia or Dzlieri Lelo, which has nine women in its top twenty. Coalition for Change Tsvlilebebistvis - Gvaramia, Melia, Girchi, Droa or Tsvlilebebistvis follows closely with eight. The remaining two major parties, the United National Movement or Natsebi and Gakharia Saqartvelostvis, each have six women.

When it comes to ethnic minorities, who make up 13% of Georgia’s population, the situation is more concerning. Only Tsvlilebebistvis includes a representative of ethnic minorities in its top twenty. Furthermore, among all parties’ full electoral lists, there are no women representatives of ethnic minorities.

In other news, On Wednesday the 9th, the European Parliament adopted a resolution concerning Georgia. In this resolution, the Parliament criticized the Russian Law and the Anti-LGBT law. The resolution states that these laws are incompatible with EU standards, and the path to membership will remain closed until Georgia repeals them.

It also calls for the suspension of financial aid until these laws are revoked. Additionally, the resolution condemns statements from the ruling party about banning the opposition and urges the European Commission to sanction Bidzina Ivanishvili for his role in undermining democracy in Georgia.

Awesome. That said, resolutions from the European Parliament are not binding. But still.

Speaking of the EU, pro-European NGOs have announced plans for a massive demonstration on the 20th of October. The event’s name is Georgia is Choosing the European Union. People will gather in four different locations and march to Liberty Square. If the demonstration attracts as many people as the Anti-Russian Law protests did, there could be from 50,000 to over 100,000 attendees..

Up next, The Communication Commission has stated that three major opposition TV channels—Mtavari, Pirveli, and Formula—violated the law by refusing to air Otsneba’s political advertisement. The ad features images of Ukrainian buildings destroyed by the Russian invasion, the same images used on Otsneba’s election banners nationwide. The message reads: "No to war, choose peace—vote for Otsneba." The channels deemed the imagery unethical and refused to allocate airtime for the ad.

On that note about Otsneba, on Monday, the 7th, the ruling party announced its intention to impeach President Salome Zourabichvili. Shalva Papuashvili, the Chairman of Parliament, stated that the reason was her unauthorized visits to France, Germany, and Poland that occurred last week. He also accused the President of participating in the election campaign.

As we talked about in previous shows, Otsneba tried to do the same in twenty twenty-three. At that time, the Constitutional Court ruled that the President’s unauthorized visits to foreign countries for meetings without government approval were unconstitutional. However, the impeachment process stalled because Otsneba lacked the necessary votes. The President appears to be disregarding the process entirely, telling journalists that she has nothing to say about it.

Since we mentioned Zourabishvili, this week she has started meeting with opposition parties to discuss the possibility of creating a temporary government after the elections. A document called the Georgian Charter, initiated by the President and signed by every major opposition party, says that a temporary government will be formed for one year after the ruling party's defeat to ensure fast implementation of EU recommendations to get the country back on its route to EU accession.

The President thinks that this type of temporary and possibly technocratic government will have a higher chance of avoiding political crises, which is highly likely to happen with a coalition government made out of very eclectic parties. After one year, new elections should be held in a more fair, equal and less polarized environment.

On Friday, the 4th Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Minister of Internal Affairs, announced the creation of special territorial groups tasked with maintaining peace at polling stations during the parliamentary elections. Each group will be assigned to a district and will consist of law enforcement officers.

Five individuals will oversee the formation of these groups, one of whom is Zviad Kharazishvili, also known as Khareba, whom the U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned for his role in anti-Russian law protests. He oversaw the suppression of protests and allegedly was in charge of physical assaults against participants. He currently serves as the head of the Special Tasks Department within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Given these allegations, his involvement in the election process, particularly as one of the overseers, has sparked backlash from NGOs. They argue that including a person sanctioned for anti-democratic actions in this process undermines the legitimacy of the upcoming elections.

More about the elections as Georgian singer Tamada recently addressed their significance in a Facebook post. He emphasized the urgent need for change to combat the nihilism and hopelessness that have plagued the country’s society for years. Expressing his frustration with the fanaticism and political clans that dominate Georgia, Tamada urged his listeners to seek a brighter future. While he didn’t endorse any specific party, he voiced his hope for a coalition government, implying his support for the opposition.

On Wednesday, the 9th, the Constitutional Court decided that it would not be temporarily suspending the Russian Law, as requested by plaintiffs, until it reached a final decision on its legality. Due to the highly political nature of the case, the Court seems hesitant to make the decision before the elections. Otsneba has not yet enforced the law against the NGOs that have refused to comply and register as foreign agents.

On Tuesday, the 8th, EU representatives in Georgia declared that due to undemocratic action, the country will lose 121 million euros of aid. This is the remainder of funds that were allocated directly to Georgian authorities from twenty twenty-two to twenty twenty-four but have not been spent yet.

A bit of unusual news. Last week, the TV channel Pirveli aired a segment about a Russian citizen who was granted Georgian citizenship allegedly without following the due legal process. According to the segment, the woman, Iulia Krushanova, is a homeopath practicing folk medicine and was invited by Bidzina Ivanishvili to prolong his life.

Businessman Giorgi Chikvadze, who says that he has private information about the alleged fraud, has publicly urged the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the case. He stated that the passport was granted on the recommendation of Georgian MP Tea Tsulukiani, who was the Minister of Justice at the time. Chikvadze, a supporter of the Otsneba party for years and someone who assisted in their election campaign, now accuses the party of engaging in business racketeering.

In some cultural updates, this will be the second consecutive year that Georgian publishers and writers will have their own independent stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair, separate from the official Georgian stand supported by the Ministry of Culture.

According to the Association of Publishers, the Ministry of Culture has a repressive policy that targets those who oppose the ruling party. This prompted the decision to boycott the Ministry and establish an independent stand at the biggest book fair in the world.

And to close this edition, the silly bridge has been demolished. It crossed the road to the Public Service Hall. The bridge had steps of different heights and lengths, making it hard to cross it. That’s why people chose to cross the road below, prompting the introduction of a traffic light control pedestrian crossing. This is a huge obstruction to the flow of traffic in the city, as there are always many people trying to cross at that particular point. If Georgia decides to steer back towards the EU, a lift on either side for disabled persons could be installed.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Do you know that besides the Rorshok Georgia Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

Nakhvamdis!