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There Is Almost No Contact between Voters and Majoritarian MP – Presentation of Survey Results in Kutaisi

November 12, 2013
 
Shorena Kakabadze, Imereti

“Once in four years, during parliamentary elections, population elects their trustees in the legislative body and trusts their and their district’s problems to him. The MPs are entitled to meet electorate after elections too,” head of nongovernmental organization CIDA Zviad Devdariani told humanrights.ge. 

However, reportedly it does not happen in reality. Majority of voters cannot even recall the names of their deputies. Regional network of civil society, which unifies 40 nongovernmental organizations of Georgia, published survey results. NGO CiDA organized the meeting in the Civic Engagement Center in Kutaisi and members of the regional network of CSOs, as well as representatives of the bureaus of majoritarian MPs from Imereti region, attended the meeting. 

The general finding of the survey – there is almost no contact between the electorate and majoritarian MPs. Zviad Devdariani spoke about more details in survey results. According to his clarification, survey about the activities of the majoritarian MPs’ bureaus became urgent after they found out that MPs did not participate or are not properly involved in the solution of local problems.

“The purpose of the survey was to study and evaluate the activities of the bureaus of majoritarian MPs and their practice. Query in the bureaus of majoritarian MPs was conducted with the questionnaires prepared by the Regional Network of Civil Society Organizations. The questionnaires were sent to the leaders of bureaus of all majoritarian MPs throughout the country (63). There were 20 questions on the list and included both hidden and open questions and allowed to collect both quantitative and qualitative information. In parallel to it, the population was also interviewed. As a result of this survey, the authors received quite unpleasant picture – population rarely meets with the majoritarian MPs,” Zviad Devdariani clarified.

52, 6% of respondents belong to this category. According to the survey, interviewees had seen their MPs only during pre-election meetings; 39, 3% of them have not met the MPs at all.

However, as the survey revealed, there are problems both in big cities and in different municipalities, and they were on the list of main priorities of the candidates before parliamentary elections. The survey showed that main requirements of the electorate are social, judicial problems, legalization of their properties, human rights and restoration of justice in general.

“People elect their representative in the legislative body and then hope that their everyday problems will be at least partly resolved with the support of the majoritarian MP. For the relevant implementation of MP’s duties, his/her bureau and full staff of the bureau shall be aware of their responsibilities before the people and electorate. Unfortunately, as we saw, very often they do not know it. There are some problems in communication too. For this purpose, we published a guideline for them and it will significantly help them in their future activities,” program director at GYLA’s Kutaisi office Nodar Jikia, who was co-author of the survey, told humanrights.ge.

The survey demonstrates that MPs and their bureaus, on which the state budget spends 5 000 GEL per month (in addition to that, the budget allocates single 5 000 lari for material-technical equipment of the office), shall work harder in order to obtain the public trust and implement their duties for what people elected them on October 1, 2012. The recommendations prepared based on the carried out survey will assist them to implement their duties properly.

Humanrights.ge tried to find out situation in Kutaisi. Whether people are aware who is majoritarian MP in Kutaisi? How electorate knows and values his activities? How MP Gubaz Sanikidze, who had obtained 54, 23% of voters from Kutaisi (47 442 people), managed to become target of the anxiety of his voters several months after the elections. Part of Kutaisi population wanted even to call him back from the parliament. Part of them requested to work out special sanctions for the MPs, who did not properly implement their duties.

Humanrights.ge interviewed Kutaisi residents with regard to Gubaz Sanikidze’s activities as majoritarian MP.

Liana Basiladze, tailor, 52: Is not Sanikidze MP? Yes I remember him giving different promises to us. I wonder if he has implemented at least one of them. I do not think so.

Gogi Mamporia, engineer, 67: I know who majoritarian MP is but I also know that he does not do anything. Cannot he say anything against moving the parliament back to Tbilisi? But he dreams about it because then he will not have to travel between Tbilisi and Kutaisi.

Manana Chakvetadze, housewife, 55: I do not remember his name. Is not it Tevdoradze? No it was mayor’s name. Is not he MP now? No? I do not know… I do not care about it. 

Lali Arabidze, teacher, 31: Gubaz Sanikidze is our MP. I supported him but I do not recall any problem he has resolved. Maybe it is our fault too. Are we applying to him for help? Is he informed? Maybe no.

Nana Ugrekhelidze, unemployed, 61: It usually happened in this way. There is a gap between us and government. We cannot meet MPs in the period between elections. They come, give us promises, get our votes and then disappear. Though, we not only elect them but also pay their salaries. 

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