Expert: Georgian poll was democratic
Roman Yakovlevski, a commentator for the Wider Europe international web portal, says the presidential elections in Georgia were democratic. He has commented on the poll results to the European Radio for Belarus:
“Firstly, despite all the forecasts and allegations that Georgia was in chaos, the country held an early presidential elections.
There were no conflicts over OSCE observers like recently in Russia. Whoever wanted to observe the vote was able to come to Georgia.
Secondly, it was a unique situation when the president officially stepped down in order to register as a presidential contender. Nothing terrible happened. The country was taken over by Nino Burzhdanadze. The political procedures were correctly met.
But the most important thing that could not be observed anywher in the post-Soviet space was that the opposition candidate gained almost 30 percent of votes.
It means that the electoral mechanism in Georgia was democratic. Despite all the difficulties in Georgia, nothing bad happened. In my view, this is a positive result of the Georgian elections that could be a model for the other countries”.
Mr Yakovlevski also believes that the people of Georgia support their country's movement towards Europe:
“Parallel to the presidential elections, the country also held a referendum on the question whether Georgia wishes to join NATO or not. If I am not mistaken, 60 percent voted in favor of Georgia joining NATO.
These results prove that the Georgian society is Europe-oriented, despite numerous votes against Saakashvili.
This is the first referendum on NATO membership in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Noboday can say now that it is just Saakashvili who wants to join NATO, not the Georgian people. The referendum showed that two thirds of the population said "yes" to NATO”.
“Firstly, despite all the forecasts and allegations that Georgia was in chaos, the country held an early presidential elections.
There were no conflicts over OSCE observers like recently in Russia. Whoever wanted to observe the vote was able to come to Georgia.
Secondly, it was a unique situation when the president officially stepped down in order to register as a presidential contender. Nothing terrible happened. The country was taken over by Nino Burzhdanadze. The political procedures were correctly met.
But the most important thing that could not be observed anywher in the post-Soviet space was that the opposition candidate gained almost 30 percent of votes.
It means that the electoral mechanism in Georgia was democratic. Despite all the difficulties in Georgia, nothing bad happened. In my view, this is a positive result of the Georgian elections that could be a model for the other countries”.
Mr Yakovlevski also believes that the people of Georgia support their country's movement towards Europe:
“Parallel to the presidential elections, the country also held a referendum on the question whether Georgia wishes to join NATO or not. If I am not mistaken, 60 percent voted in favor of Georgia joining NATO.
These results prove that the Georgian society is Europe-oriented, despite numerous votes against Saakashvili.
This is the first referendum on NATO membership in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Noboday can say now that it is just Saakashvili who wants to join NATO, not the Georgian people. The referendum showed that two thirds of the population said "yes" to NATO”.
