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| Caucasus | |
| Georgia's new boss the same as the old boss? | |
| 2004-03-30 | |
| It couldn't have been more different from last time. In November, thousands of people turned up on election day only to be told they weren't eligible to vote. They were so angry, they massed in the capital to protest, camping out all week and finally marching on the office of then-President Eduard Shevardnadze, forcing him to step down. Sunday's parliamentary election set the seal on Mikheil Saakashvili's "Rose Revolution" -- so called because the tens of thousands of protesters demanding Shevardnadze's resignation carried red roses to show they didn't want any violence. Exit polls after this weekend's vote suggested the Georgian leader's party had won every one of the 150 seats up for grabs (the other 85 weren't being contested). True, a cloud hung over the vote in Adzharia, a renegade region on the Black Sea coast, where ballots have allegedly been rigged in the past. Earlier this month, the country was brought to the brink of civil war after Aslan Abashidze, the pint-sized, silver-haired leader of Adzharia, refused to accept Georgian authority. The spat was averted at the last minute when the international community stepped in to intervene. The Georgian president warned Abashidze, whose critics call him a tin-pot dictator, not to try any of his tricks this time around. But he needn't have bothered: All the signs were that Saakashvili's party had swept the board in Adzharia, too. All the Georgians I have spoken to in the last few days told me that they were voting for Saakashvili's bloc on Sunday. "I love him," said Levan Tsereteli, a third-year chemistry student at Tbilisi State University. "We all do. We're just so happy to see the back of Shevardnadze." Nobody could compare Saakashvili to Shevardnadze. Saakashvili is a U.S.-educated lawyer who speaks five languages and was barely out of kneesocks when the Soviet Union collapsed. Shevardnadze was a member of the old guard who cut his teeth during the Brezhnev era. Saakashvili advocates transparency in Georgian politics. He has promised to put an end to corruption, increase pensions and wipe out unemployment. Shevardnadze, who survived two assassination attempts, let the country go to rack and ruin and was accused of installing friends and relatives in high places. Nevertheless, reports are emerging of Saakashvili's collaborators using strong-arm tactics to force people in rural areas to vote for the National Movement. Yes, the country is now run by a young reformer who wants to join Western institutions, including the European Union and NATO. But when it comes down to it, Georgia has become a one-party state. What's so democratic about that?
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| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through Just an old sweet song Keeps Georgia on my mind Talkin' 'bout Georgia Georgia A song of you Comes as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines Other arms reach out to me Other eyes smile tenderly Still in peaceful dreams I see The road leads back to you Georgia, oh Georgia, no peace I find Just an old sweet song Keeps Georgia on my mind Whoa! Lotta Caucasisans here tonight! Damn sorry wrong blog. |
| Posted by: Brother Ray 2004-03-30 6:11:28 PM |
| #3 Beats me, Liberalhawk, hence the question mark at the title. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-30 2:15:54 PM |
| #2 Saakashvili: Brought to you by George Soros' "Open Society Institute". |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H 2004-03-30 11:57:55 AM |
| #1 Nevertheless, reports are emerging of Saakashvili's collaborators using strong-arm tactics to force people in rural areas to vote for the National Movement This is the sum total of the evidence presented to justify the headline - from THE MOSCOW TIMES - given that Saakashvili is relatively anti-Russian, is this a reliable source? |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-03-30 9:52:46 AM |