Mute Message of the President – Choose One of the Three!

Aleko Tskitishvili

Elections of the chairperson of the Central Election Commission have been still actively disputed. Of course, nobody expected the president to nominate at least one of the three candidates to be unacceptable for the government. However, nomination of Levan Tarkhnishvili, the former CEC Chairperson, was beyond all expectations.

The opposition considers this decision of the president to be a cynical. However, opposition parties are also guilty in this situation because they initiated the amendments to the election code. According to the changes, NGOs were to offer their candidates to the president before the election of the new chairperson. The president had to choose three of the offered candidates and then he had to offer them to the CEC. New edition of the law also stated that only opposition members of the CEC are entitled to elect one of the three candidates nominated by the president. It is difficult to comment on this fact! The law is democratic and pluralist but the opposition could not foresee the well-established practice in Georgia when the government does not care about the public interest in similar situations; first of all authority pays attention to their mercantile interests.

All in all, the president did his job and nominated three candidates on January 12. His message is the following – I have done my duty and now it is up to you to choose one of the three.

Mikheil Saakashvili nominated Levan Tarkhnishvili, Zurab Kharatishvili and Otar Sichinava among the 14 candidates proposed by the non-governmental organizations. Interim CEC chairperson Levan Tarkhnishvili was candidate of the Liberty Institute. Member of the Council of Trustees of the Public Broadcasting Zurab Kharatishvili was candidate of the organization “Alpe”. In the past Kharatishvili was member of the CEC and carried out financial monitoring of the political parties during the elections in 2008. As for Otar Sichinava, he is a judge at the Constitutional Court and was nominated by the NGO “New Generation – New Initiative.”

Opposition members of the CEC shall think and elect one of the three nominated candidates. On January 13 inside consultations started but everybody realizes that nothing is to think over. Representatives of the CEC reported to the Interpressnews that the commission session will be held on January 14 and representatives of the opposition parties will discuss the issues about candidates. They will inform the society about the decision after the meeting.

In accordance to the law, one of the candidates nominated by the president shall be elected by the opposition members of the CEC no later than January 14. If none of them receives four votes during secret ballots, the process will continue in the parliament and before January 21 the MPs will elect one of the three candidates.

Opposition parties and political scientists cannot hide their astonishment. However, the opposition does not know yet how to oppose the process which already demonstrates the wish of the authority to control the elections and finally win it. The parties, which have boycotted the self-governmental elections scheduled for May of 2010, have one more argument to reinforce their claiming that the elections will be falsified and it has no sense to participate in it. The parties, who do not agree with this opinion and are preparing for the elections, turned up in difficult situation.

“The three candidates nominated by the president are completely unacceptable for the Alliance of Georgia. We do not support any of them,” said one of the leaders of the political movement Our Georgia for Free Democrats Zurab Abashidze in his interview with Interpressnews.

He added that the Alliance for Georgia joined the group which worked on the election code. It was their initiative to choose candidates together with civil society. “This idea was formally satisfied. However, in practice the president did not nominate the candidates proposed by the civil sector,” said Abashidze.

Political scientist Soso Tsiskarishvili said the “nomination of the members of the National Movement” for the CEC chairperson by the president is next immoral action of the government. He said the Liberty Institute once more degraded the president by proposing Levan Tarkhnishvili. Simultaneously, they once more proved that Tarkhnishvili is a hero of the National Movement because he falsified the previous elections together with the government and has taken part in this crime.

Tsiskarishvili said Otar Sichinava is a lawyer of high qualification but he has not taken exam in principality yet.

“It is fact that the president nominated only those three candidates who were proposed by the NGOs which are close of the National Movement, said Soso Tsiskarishvili. More precisely, NGO “Alpe”, where Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugualva was working in the past and he still controls it, nominated Kharatishvili to balance the situation. Thus, it is not excluded that the candidate shall be chosen between Sichinava and Tarkhnishvili.

Opposition parties continue consultations both inside their parties and with other parties; they plan to spread general statement as well. However, initially the society will hear the 6 opposition members of the CEC. They are in very difficult situation. However, the decision they have to make, is not very difficult based on the nominated candidates. Apparently, MPs will make final decision and not opposition members of the CEC. So it is not excluded that Levan Tarkhnishvili will be the best of the three again because he is very precious person for the government.