GLOBAL PULSE One Step Forward, How Many Steps Back? by Ana Loula
T
(now moved to Kutaisi), away from the major political theatre. After several days, weeks or months of fervent manifes-
his spring I was visiting Yerevan, Armenia during the
tations and protests, I expected students, pensioners, civil serv-
immediate post-election period. The Alliance for
ants, civil activists, employed and unemployed to go back to
Liberals and Democrats in Europe Congress was tak-
their normal lives and shift political discourse within the families,
ing place in the capital of Armenia and I was participating as a
schools and universities, shops, supermarkets and public
visitor and representative of civil society from neighboring Geor-
transport. Politics would be present everywhere, dominating
gia. Amid the opposition party allegations and grievances from
the daily vocabulary of every Georgian, served in every Georgian restaurant as a main course and dessert,
my close Armenian friends regarding the likely years of corruption and selective justice that still lay ahead for the country, I felt
Politics would be present everywhere ‌except the parliament of Georgia.
would be everywhere, except the parliament of Georgia. Despite being a little bit more diverse this time, the
that the ordinary citizens were paying respect for the existing status quo in the streets, leading me to
Georgian Parliament is still not ready to host the pluralism of
expect similar sentiments in Georgia for the coming elections:
ideas and deliberations that Georgian civil society holds. It would
political rivals would conclude their marathon of blaming and
know no lobbying, no coalitions; just one party having constitu-
shaming just before the voting day, citizens would cast their
tional majority and the other making cacophony.
votes, elections would be partly fair/partly rigged, opposition
Extremely low trust in the legislative branch of govern-
parties (by then already part of the Georgian Dream Coalition)
ment was partly driven by the wide perception that previous
and their supporters would rally in the streets to condemn the
parliamentary elections were rigged and partly by the skepticism
elections, question the legitimacy of the existing parliament
towards the opposition parties which entered the parliament and were believed to represent a mere façade of opposition politics. People found these rumors more persuasive after the elections when none of the parties except the two major rivals: United National Movement (exruling party) and the Georgian Dream Coalition (led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili) crossed the five percent threshold. This is quite interesting given the fact that pre-election political discourse suggested voting for the third parties with moderate
Georgian election rally (Photo: theatlantic.com)
Atlantic Voices, Volume 2, Issue 12
political platforms. This was
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