Government Made Kutaisi Center Red with the Support of Brought People

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

Specially fenced area in the city centre, free fuel and red fives on city transports; forcibly brought people from districts, a large army of teachers and permits to attend the assembly only for selected people- this is how Kutaisi met National Movement’s pre-election conference.

Preparations for the conference in Kutaisi started at the end of last month. Leaders of Kutaisi City Hall, district and village governors declared full readiness to prepare for the conference. Instead, as people say, they received guaranteed jobs and a lot of surprises.

“Kutaisi doesn’t remember so many people gathered together. There were not so many people even during Rose revolution. Gathering of so many people in the center of historic city of Kutaisi proves that we will achieve our goals, we will defiantly win,” Mikheil Saakashvili said during the assembly.

In fact, it was merit of active district governors and employees of local self-governmental agencies to fill Central Square with people in red t-shirts and red fives. However, some organization issues were not resolved, which created serious inconvenience.

Only people with permits were allowed to attend the conference of the National Movement. Others expressed their dissatisfaction with different forms (some even started quarreling). After unsuccessful waiting, those, who were from nearby districts left territory soon.

“Why did they bring us here if they were not going to allow us to enter? They took us from our houses when we had so much work in this fall time. Before that, they were convincing us during two weeks that it was compulsory to attend this meeting. Now they made fun of us and after long-waiting we have to go back. Coordinators say they didn’t knew anything about passes and they will found out what is going on. But it’s already one hour that we are standing here. It seems nothing will be cleared up,” said teachers from Tskaltubo district schools.

“At first they requested permits, then ID cards. They have been controlling our IDs and recording our personal data since election campaign started. What they have left unchecked or unrecorded? At least they should be ashamed of elderly people, who arrived here from such a long distance,” residents of Khoni district also complained.

Only those with permits and IDs were allowed to attend the National Movement’s assembly. Other waited for the “performance” unsuccessfully. According to spread information coordinators and micro coordinators gave passes to one part of activists. Others received special documents to enter pre-election meeting at public agencies.

As for the activists, most people were from Imereti districts. According to Humanrights.ge Kutaisi City Hall organized everything.  Election headquarters of the ruling party were working in emergency regime; they were distributing flags, t-shirts and caps generously.

Traffic jams created at petrol stations in the city, where drivers had to queue because too many buses were filling in tanks. Teachers, young people and administration employees were brought by these buses. Coordinators were gathering people in front of residential buildings and then they were transported to central square of the city.

In short, on September 8, conference of the ruling party in Kutaisi was successful at the expense of administrative resources. Giorgi Tevdoradze number five candidate on the National Movement’s election list and former city mayor was officially named as majoritarian candidate of Kutaisi. Local members of the National Movement and the President seemed very; the latter could not control his emotions and said: “You can take from any corner. Look how many people have gathered. We will defiantly win”