2008 Georgian parliamentary election: Difference between revisions

2008 Georgian parliamentary election

All 150 seats in the Parliament 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	52.82% ( 11.11pp)

Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on 21 May 2008.^[1] President Mikheil Saakashvili proposed a referendum on bringing them forward from fall to spring after the 2007 Georgian demonstrations.^[2] The referendum was held at the same time as the early presidential election on 5 January 2008; the results indicated that voters were largely in favour of having the elections in spring.^[3]

The Central Election Commission registered 3,458,020 voters,^[4] significantly higher than the 2,343,087 registered in 2004. The election was observed by 14 international and 31 local organizations.^[5][6]

Pre-election process[edit]

The pre-election period was principally monitored by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as well as several local watchdogs. The PACE observers reported “little or no improvement” in the political climate after the January 5 presidential election, which was held in the tense aftermath of the November 2007 political crisis and resulted in the reelection of Mikheil Saakashvili to his second term. The monitoring mission noted that “the political climate is still dominated by a lack of trust and absence of constructive dialogue between the authorities and the opposition”, one result of this being “the failure of the electoral reform that the authorities and the opposition agreed upon in the aftermath of the November 2007 events.”^[7]

The amendments to the election code passed by the Parliament in March 2008 took into account recommendations made by the PACE, such as the abolition of additional voters’ lists and voter registration on polling day; lowering of the electoral threshold from 7% to 5%; the simplification and clarification of election-related complaints and appeals procedures; the introduction of party representation in the District Election Commissions. However, the PACE noted that a number of its other recommendations remained unaddressed.^[7]

This period also saw a significant reshuffle among the major political players. On February 29, 2008, the moderate Republican Party of Georgia left the nine-party opposition coalition, which spearheaded anti-government protests in November 2007, announcing that they would run independently for the parliamentary election, targeting mainly moderate and undecided voters.^[8] On the other hand, the New Rights party, which had distanced themselves from the 2007 demonstrations, now joined the nine-party coalition under an election bloc named United Opposition–New Rights.^[9]

Another key event, which sent shockwaves across Georgia’s political scene on April 21, 2008, was the refusal by Nino Burjanadze, the outgoing parliamentary chairwoman and Saakashvili’s ally, to run on the president-led United National Movement (UNM) ticket, citing an absence of consensus within the UNM leadership regarding the party list.^[10]

Contending parties[edit]

Three election blocs and nine parties contested this election:^[11]

• United National Movement, current ruling party led by President Saakashvili;
• United Opposition: the National Council – New Rights, a bloc uniting a nine-party alliance (Freedom Movement, Conservative Party of Georgia, Party of Georgia, People’s Party, Movement for United Georgia, National Forum, Georgia’s Way, Georgian Troupe, On Our Own Party) with David Gamkrelidze‘s New Right which is led by the former presidential candidate and Saakashvili’s principal rival Levan Gachechiladze;
• Republican Party of Georgia, led by Davit Usupashvili;
• Georgian Labour Party, led by Shalva Natelashvili;
• Christian-Democratic Movement, founded and led by the former Imedi TV journalist Giorgi Targamadze;
• Rightist Alliance – Topadze Industrialists, uniting Industry Will Save Georgia led by the beer magnate Gogi Topadze, the National Democratic Party and Unity led by the former Soviet Georgian leader Jumber Patiashvili;
• Union of Georgian Traditionalists – Our Georgia – Georgian Women Party for Justice and Equality alliance;
• Christian-Democratic Alliance, uniting the former presidential candidate Gia Maisashvili, the Green Party and Temur Shashiashvili, a former governor of Imereti region under ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze;
• The Georgian Politics, a party recently set up by Gocha Pipia, a member of the…