Georgians vote in key parliamentary election
TBILISI—Georgians queued to vote for a new parliament on Monday in an election that marks the biggest test of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s grip on the Caucasus Mountain nation after nearly a decade in power.
Saakashvili, a pro-Western leader who swept to the presidency after the bloodless Rose Revolution of 2003 and fought a fiveday war with Russia in 2008, hopes to head off a challenge led by Bidzina Ivanishvili.
A once-reclusive tycoon with a fortune nearly half the size of the former Soviet republic’s economy, 56-year-old Ivanishvili and his six-party Georgian Dream movement face an uphill battle.
But video footage showing the abuse and rape of inmates at a Tbilisi prison has increased their chances.
Voting in the election, which got under way at 12:00 p.m., was brisk, with lines forming outside several polling stations in the capital Tbilisi, a Reuters correspondent observed.
Saakashvili, 44, must step down after a presidential vote next year, when constitutional changes will weaken the role of head of state giving more power to parliament and the prime minister.
That may give him a way to remain in charge of the country of 4.5 million, an important gas and oil transit route to the West, if his United National Movement retains its dominance of parliament.
“Besides being a contest for parliament, it is also a shadow leadership election,” said Thomas de Waal, a Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. He said the vote “marks a turning point for Georgia”.
The prison abuse video, aired on two channels opposed to Saakashvili including one owned by Ivanishvili, has undermined the president’s image as a reformer who imposed the rule of law and rooted out postSoviet corruption.
“I’m voting against violence and abuse - how can I do otherwise after what we have all seen on TV?” Natela Zhorzholia, 68, said outside a polling station at a school in the capital, Tbilisi. She said she would vote for Geor- gian Dream.
Ivanishvili hopes the scandal will convince voters who had been undecided who to back in the election that Saakashvili has become an undemocratic leader who tramples on rights and freedoms.
Saakashvili highlighted the importance of the vote after casting his ballot with his Dutch wife and their young son, and said: “The fate of our country’s statehood is being decided today.”