Western orientation of Georgian elections

The population in Georgia believes that in achieving fair elections the West is the ally of Georgia and will secure Georgia’s democratic development and standards. Opposition members believe this as well and claim that they want to change the existing regime in a peaceful democratic way. This has become a particularly sensitive issue now that the ruling administration has begun to use arrogant and punitive measures against the opposition Georgian Dream coalition. Everybody understands that it has little to do fair elections.

Many independent analysts suggest that it has little to do with the rule of law, democratic development or fair elections. The recently held Georgian Dream rally proved that it ultimately has the support in the population. This caused an immediate nervous reaction by the ruling power which aims to suppress all possible resistance from the opposition. But the population reacts in this regard adequately, thinking that if the West does not take measures to force the processes into the democratic direction that means they are supporting the existing regime. This position creates a negative reaction towards Georgia’s Western allies. Currently, some of the property which legally does not belong to Ivanishvili was seized; the ruling government also paralyzed all of the political entities that make up the Georgian Dream and thus leaving the election process paralyzed too. Analysts call the situation absurd. On the one hand the president claims that he is the guarantor of democratic elections. On the other hand he is a guarantor of the victory of his own party. Under the circumstances the population and politicians still expect support from the West. There are appeals in the media to Western diplomats to force the ruling power stop the violation unless it yields some unpleasant developments. They urge the Western allies that democratic development is under threat in Georgia and if things continue, the country might fall into civil confrontation and chaos which will finally ruin the country and of course its Western orientation as well. Many independent political analysts observe that the ruling authorities made some very strict steps right after the US state secretary left Georgia. Many think that this was a green light given by Clinton to Saakashvili and his supporters. Some analysts urge Georgia’s Western allies that this ostrich policy will eventually damage their position in the region. In reality, after the Baltic Republic, there is only Georgia which has proved itself entirely Western-oriented and it had been proving this for many years in sequence.

Many observers notice that the political processes in Georgia might develop in radical direction, which will result in some unpredictable developments. So as one analyst suggested– do not just stand there staring, do something.