Opinion - News Analysis   

West’s double standards on Georgian vote

The snap presidential poll in Georgia last Sunday would have evoked few thrills in Russia, but there was an overwhelming approval of the outcome in the West despite glaring election violations.

Russia had little to lose or gain in the Georgian vote. President Mikhail Saakashvili, who was officially declared winner on Wednesday with 52 per cent of the votes, and his six rivals are all manifestly pro-Western and anti-Russian. However, Moscow w as dismayed to see the West applaud the vote as free and democratic, whereas barely a month ago it slammed a Russian parliamentary poll as neither free nor fair.

Mr. Saakashvili called the January 5 election following a brutal police crackdown on large-scale opposition protests last November. The hero of the 2003 United States-backed “rose revolution” and the West’s darling, Mr. Saakashvili unleashed riot police on thousands of non-violent protesters calling for his resignation. Hundreds were injured when security forces hit demonstrators with truncheons, rubber bullets, and tear gas. Georgia earned the dubious honour of becoming the first nation in the world to use health-crippling sonic blasters against its own people. Until now, this non-lethal weapon has only been used by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Georgian police ransacked the headquarters of the only opposition TV station, Imedi, smashing computers and equipment. The station was shut down, and shortly after the ban was lifted it went off the air again and stayed closed throughout the election campaign. Journalists refused to work in protest against what they called “pressure and blackmailing from the authorities” and “complete hysteria by the government-controlled TV channels” against Imedi.

By calling a snap election on January 5, Mr. Saakashvili gave the Opposition no time to get its act together and field a united candidate. Ahead of the vote, the government handed out vouchers for utilities and medical supplies as “presents from the President” to millions of Georgian voters in what the Opposition said was an act of outright bribery.

The Opposition accused the government of rigging the vote through vote stuffing, using “indelible ink” that could be easily washed away, getting the same people to vote several times, and forging election protocols. Manipulation of voter lists was especially outrageous. Four years ago, 2.2 million people were registered as being eligible to vote; this time, the list swelled to 3.4 million, whereas the country’s population had declined.

Notwithstanding these damning facts, U.S. Congressman Alcee Hastings, coordinator of election monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said that “democracy took a triumphant step” in the Georgian poll.

The Russian Foreign Ministry described his assessment as “hasty” and “superficial,” and said the vote was marred by “blatant pressure” on the Opposition.

In the opinion of many Russian and Georgian analysts, democracy has taken a severe beating under President Saakashvili. He has jailed dozens of Opposition politicians, clamped down on independent media and undermined the independence of the judiciary. Mr. Saakashvili’s presidency has been tainted by the mysterious death of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, which officials blamed on accidental gas poisoning, while relatives are convinced it was murder.

However, the West has given Georgia a clean bill of health. The OSCE monitors certified the voting in Georgia as “consistent with international standards.”

Though the Russian parliamentary polls on December 2 witnessed only a fraction of the irregularities seen in the Georgian vote, the European observers accused the Kremlin of “a clear abuse of power and a clear violation of international commitments and standards.” They registered “a lot of concerns about the evolution of democracy” in Russia.

The reason for this glaring display of double standards is obvious. Russia under President Vladimir Putin has become a thorn in the West’s side, challenging it on nearly every major international issue, and therefore it cannot by definition be called a democracy. By contrast, Georgia, which lies at the strategic crossroads of energy-rich Central Asia and Europe, has fully allied itself with the West, and in the words of U.S. President George W. Bush, is a “beacon of democracy.”

Interestingly, the OSCE election observation mission head Dieter Boden, in an interview to the Frankfurter Rundschau daily on Thursday, admitted that the Georgian vote had been marred by “gross violations, negligence and deliberate falsifications in vote counting.”

The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, has already congratulated the Georgians on “an election conducted largely in accordance with international standards.”

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Ratan Tata’s ace
Prison system and reform
An occasion for India to think big
Waiting for Manmohan Singh
Employment guarantee: beyond propaganda
West’s double standards on Georgian vote
Japan gets tough over safety of cyclists
Corrections and clarifications
Award for Vajpayee
For quality education
New Year revelries

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu