The Saakashvili Era
Georgia's Government is headed by President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was elected on January 4, 2004 in an election that brought Georgia closer to meeting international standards. Parliamentary elections held on November 2, 2003 were marred by massive fraud and manipulation of results by government-controlled election commissions. Peaceful popular protests of the fraud led to the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze and the annulment of the proportional results.Previous elections in Georgia had been marred by serious irregularities that limited citizens' right to change their government. As a result, the US human rights and democracy strategy consisted of providing assistance designed to increase participation and transparency in the election process; combating police abuses, discrimination and harassment directed against religious minorities, corruption and trafficking in persons, supporting civil society, fostering judicial reform, and promoting independent media.
Following President Shevardnadze's resignation, the United States provided assistance for the January 2004 presidential election, including additional training for new election commission members, a get-out-the-vote campaign, exit polling and voter marking. The Embassy's direct intervention helped secure the participation in the election of the Autonomous Republic of Ajara, a region of Georgia that had threatened to boycott. Following the presidential election, the United States immediately turned to preparing a diplomatic and assistance strategy for the repeat parliamentary elections scheduled for 28 March 2004.
As a result of the Rose Revolution, National Movement and the Burjanadze-Democrats emerged as the leading parties in Georgia. The two parties later united as the National Democrats. The Parliament is dominated by the National Democrats and no official minority currently exists in parliament. The New Rights party and the Industrialists have united and formed a bloc called the Rightist Opposition with Davit Gamkrelidze as the leader. Koba Davitashvili and Zviad Dzidziguri led a party named Union of National Forces - Conservatives. David Berdzenishvili led the Republicans.
International observers deemed the March 2004 parliamentary elections the most democratic since independence, with voter registration procedures further improved, including the addition of a consolidated computerized database; however, there continued to be a lack of political balance and independence in election commissions. During the election, international observers noticed a number of irregularities, including campaign material on display in several polling stations, implausible voter turnout (over 100 percent) in certain regions, and an unusually high percentage of invalid votes. Significant voting irregularities again took place in Kvemo Kartli, including ballot stuffing and proxy voting.
Ajara remained the largest problem in the parliamentary elections. Then Ajara President Abashidze initially threatened to prevent the region from participating in Georgia's national parliamentary elections, voter registration information was inaccurate, and officials refused to cooperated with officials of the CEC. NGOs reported that violence against the opposition was higher than in previous elections. Opposition gatherings were violently suppressed or attacked, opposition offices were ransacked, and no television time was given to opposition parties. On 05 March 2004, unidentified men in masks beat reporter Vakhtang Komakhidze at a border checkpoint and confiscated his tapes, camera, and notes. Komakhidze was later hospitalized for several weeks. Such abuse reportedly prompted large-scale demonstrations, which were linked to Abashidze's ouster in May 2004.
The Government's human rights record remained poor although there were some improvements in a few areas. Numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) blamed the Government for several deaths in custody due to physical abuse, torture or inhumane and life-threatening prison conditions. NGOs reported that police brutality continued.
Security forces continued to torture, beat and otherwise abuse detainees. Corruption in law enforcement agencies remained pervasive. Arbitrary arrest and detention remained problems as did lack of accountability. Reforms to create a more independent judiciary and ensure due process were undermined by failure to pay judges in a timely manner. Lengthy delays in trials and prolonged pretrial detention remained problems.
The press generally was free; however, occasionally security forces and other authorities intimidated and used violence against journalists. Security forces refrained from violently dispersing demonstrations in November 2004. Government officials infringed upon freedom of religion and continued to tolerate discrimination, harassment and violence against some religious minorities. Trafficking in persons remained a problem.
An early presidential election was scheduled after President Saakashvili resigned in November 2007, following the government’s violent dispersal of protestors in front of Parliament. Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burjanadze assumed the presidency on an interim basis until January elections.
On January 5, 2008, Saakashvili was elected to a second 5-year term with 53.45% of the vote. Levan Gachechiladze, the unified candidate of nine opposition parties, earned 25.68%. Voters also overwhelmingly voted in two plebiscites in favor of NATO integration and spring parliamentary elections.
In the May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections, President Saakashvili’s United National Movement won an overwhelming majority with 119 out of 150 seats. International observers agreed that the government made efforts to conduct the elections in line with international standards but that the elections were uneven and incomplete in their adherence to those standards. Half of the opposition boycotted the new Parliament, citing voter intimidation, lack of balance by most media, and a lack of fair adjudication of complaints, problems also noted by the OSCE. As a result, by-elections were held in Tbilisi and Adjara on November 3, 2008. In the fall of 2009, Parliament passed legislation allowing those individuals who had refused to take their seats following the May 2008 elections to assume office if they so chose.
Parliamentary elections were scheduled for 2012 and a presidential election was scheduled for 2013. Under Georgia’s constitution, President Saakashvili was prevented from running for a third term in 2013.
Georgian President Georgy Margelashvili signed a decree 04 December 2015 on revoking citizenship from former leader Mikhail Saakashvili, TASS reported. A decree was signed “on basis of the law ‘On Georgian citizenship’ to revoke the country’s citizenship from Mikhail Saakashvili as he has received citizenship of another country,” the presidential press service said. Saakashvili was president from January 2004. He left Georgia in November 2013, several days before his tenure in office officially ended. The former president then lived in the US and Ukraine.
By his Decree of 13 February 2015, President Petro Poroshenko established an Advisory International Council of Reforms and appointed Mikheil Saakashvili to the post of its Head. In May 2015 Mikheil Saakashvili was appointed governor of the Ukrainian region of Odesa.This province stretches along the Black Sea in the country's southwest and is known for its ethnic and cultural diversity — and deeply rooted traditions of corruption and smuggling. Saakashvili embarked on ambitious anti-corruption reforms.
Saakashvili took Ukrainian citizenship to take up the Odesa post, and has been stripped of his Georgian citizenship. The former Georgian president constantly mentioned Vladimir Putin, reforms in post-revolution Ukraine, and attempts to reform Russophone Odessa.
By April 2016, the crunch time For Saakashvili approached to determine whether Poroshenko was part of the problem, or part of the solution. He held a press conference in which he blasted the president for not fulfilling a single promise made since he took office after the 2014 revolution. Saakashvili tendered his resignation as governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region on 07 November 2016, accusing President Petro Poroshenko of cynically obstructing his attempts at reform and supporting corrupt clans. Saakashvili has been stateless since his former mentor, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship in July 2017.
After beginning an opposition campaign against Poroshenko, Saakashvili was detained at a Kyiv restaurant in February 2018 and taken to the airport and flown to Poland, the country from which he returned to Ukraine in September 2017 after eluding a border blockade.
In January 2018, Saakashvili was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison after being convicted of trying to cover up evidence about the killing of a Georgian banker. He rejected those charges as well, calling them politically motivated.
A Georgian court sentenced Saakashvili in absentia to six years in prison after convicting him of abuse of power. In a 28 June 2018 verdict, the Tbilisi City Court found Saakashvili guilty of abusing his authority as president by trying to cover up evidence related to the 2005 beating of opposition lawmaker Valery Gelashvili. Saakashvili, who was living in the Netherlands, condemned the ruling and charged that it was politically motivated.
Saakashvili was appointed head of the Executive Committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council on 08 May 2020. The Office of Simple Solutions and Results was established in Ukraine at the initiative of head of the Ukrainian National Reform Council's Executive Committee Mikheil Saakashvili.
Authorities in Georgia arrested Saakashvili on 01 October 2021 shortly after he returned from exile, setting up a potential showdown with his supporters in the opposition. Saakashvili announced his return in video messages a day before closely watched local elections. His opponents in the ruling Georgian Dream party had warned Saakashvili would be arrested on a 2018 abuse of office conviction if he returned, and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said he had quickly been detained. Saakashvili was convicted in absentia on the abuse of office charges in 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison. He denied any wrongdoing and said the case was politically motivated.
A longstanding champion of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, Zurabishvili argued 02 June 2023 her ambitions are being undermined by the current government in Tbilisi. Just a few days ago, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that a NATO enlargement was one of the reasons for the war in Ukraine – a stark contrast to Zurabishvili’s own opinions. “I’m representing first of all the Georgian constitution, which states that all state institutions – so maybe he (Garibashvili) should read it – should do everything possible in their capacities to move the country towards Euro-Atlantic integration,” she said.
Zurabishvili also commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent order to resume direct flights between Moscow and Tbilisi, and abolishing visa requirements for Georgian nationals travelling to Russia. “Provocation,” she said. “I don’t want Russian provocations to be played (out) at this time and age when we are moving towards the decision on (EU) candidacy.”
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