Teachers Barred from Meeting Opposition Candidates

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

Teachers of the public schools are banned from meeting with single mandate candidates from among the camp of opposition candidates. School directors have made such statements to the teachers under the name of Educational Resource Centers and from district organizations representing the National Movement last week. Moreover, teachers have been warned from attending any meetings with single mandate candidates. They have been told that they are only allowed to meet those representing the ruling party.

“Everyone has the right to freely receive information, to express their views, either orally or in writing, or by any other means,” as stipulated under Article 24 of the Georgian Constitution.

“Everyone with the exception of members of the armed forces, the police and members of the security office have the right to public assembly and without arms, and a meeting can be held  either indoors or outdoors, and without have been granted prior permission,” states Article 25 of the Georgian Constitution.

These rights are guaranteed by the supreme law of the land. But as teachers and representatives of non-governmental organizations and opposition parties claim that these rights are being restricted in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.

Reportedly, the directors of the Educational Resource Centers received special orders from the regional organization of the United National Movement. The order is the following: teachers of public schools must meet the single mandate candidates from the ruling political party during the pre-election campaign. If a director of any school does not obey the order then that teacher will be terminated and given personal notification.

“School directors have warned us, teachers several days ago that parliamentary candidates intended to visit our school in order to introduce us to their election programs. But, we had to meet only the candidate from the ruling National Party. The majority of teachers did not appreciate the warning and some even protested. The director explained that similar order was received from the director of the Educational Resource Center and the regional organization of the leading party. Teachers of all public schools in the region should obey those orders, otherwise we will be fired.

We wanted to meet the candidates to complain about our unbearable conditions but we could not,” said a teacher of the Sagarejo Public School # 1 who preferred to remain anonymous.

A teacher from the Arashenda Public School in Gurjaani District informed us that her school’s director had warned her that she must not meet the candidate from the United Opposition. However, I met anyway. “During the meeting officials from the local government watched us and took down the names of those who had attended the meeting. That evening I was strictly warned not to attend meetings organized by opposition parties,” said a teacher of the Arashenda Public School.

Zviad Kviralashvili, single mandate candidate from Republic Party in Gurjaani District, stated that he has encountered problems while meeting with teachers. “The Election HQ of the Republic Party has been in contact with the directors of several public schools. We explained that we wanted to introduce teacher to our election programs. Do you know what the director answered us? Teachers have already made their choice and we cannot meet you. Moreover, directors of several schools allowed teachers to attend our meetings after we made statements about the repression being experienced by teachers. Several teachers attended subsequent meetings. However, meeting halls were over-packed during previous meetings,” said Kviralashvili.

Zaza Abashidze, a single mandate candidate from the United Opposition, also speaks about the restricted rights of teachers. She said that plenty of people attended previous meetings but now only few of them are coming to meet candidates.

According to the NGOs, who observe pre-election campaign, teachers were actually warned against attending opposition meetings. Nana Devidze, Kakheti Regional Coordinator for “Fair Ellections” stated that teachers were also ordered to attend all meetings with the candidates from the ruling party. “As far as I know from teacher’s stories, unless they follow the order, they will be considered as being on the list of opposition supporters; they will then experience problems. They might also be fired from their school jobs. However, it is the psychological repression that is illegal,” said Nana Devidze.

Zurab Kheviashvili, representative of the Kakheti Organization of the National Movement did not comment about the repression of teachers. “Of course, we have more state resources than opposition parties. Teachers meet our candidates and how can you claim that you were able to detect violation based on this fact? The conditions are not equal maybe because we have an ideal candidate,” said Kheviashvili.

“School is not a political organization and we cannot interfere with the educational process.  Teachers have constitutional rights to listen to whoever they want. However, if they do not meet somebody, then it is not our problem,” said Lali Gabitashvili, the director of the Gurjaani Educational Resource Center.