|
 |
|
|
Voter threshold remains major moot point
Print version 
Author: Story by Nina Akhmeteli
Parliament is debating amendments to the election code despite a failure to reach a consensus late last month at the head offices of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Tbilisi.
Failing to reach a compromise with the ruling party during the talks, the United National Movement declared outright that continuing a dialogue in the NDI format is meaningless. Now Alliance for Georgia seemingly faces having to either agree completely on new rules of the election game or quit altogether the mayoral race.
The alliance’s final decision on whether its leader Irakli Alasania will pursue his struggle to become Tbilisi’s next mayor will be voiced within a week after consultations with civil society representatives.
According to Alasania, the fight should continue for the alliance’s core demand of a 50-percent voter threshold in the Tbilisi mayoral elections.
“Society does not want the right to elect the mayor to be deprived from the majority of the Tbilisi public,” Alasania said after the meeting with Georgian Academy representatives. “This will be one of the issues that we will continue to fight for.”
The ruling party proposed a voter threshold of 30 percent. The alliance initially sought a 50-percent threshold, but later tried to sell a “compromising” figure of 45 percent to the National Movement in an effort to find a consensus. After the National Movement’s 30-percent voter threshold was opposed by the alliance, as expected the National Movement and National Democrats shot down the opposition team’s proposal at the NDI office.
Opposition parties who participated in the talks said the issue of the voter threshold is not a principle matter, and much more significant agreements have already been reached.
Giorgi Gogniashvili of the National Democratic Party said the party was initially in favor of a high voter threshold, but disagreements over the threshold might have damaged already reached agreements.
Full Story... |
|
|
Primary: Hard path to unity
Print version
Author: Story by Nina Akhmeteli
As the days whittle away before the local elections, the list of potential candidates for Tbilisi mayor grows larger and larger.
Until today Alliance for Georgia leader Irakli Alasania, People’s Party leader Koba Davitashvili and Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri expressed their intention to partake in the mayoral race.
From the parliamentary opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Georgia was the first to nominate a candidate, Davit Iakobidze.
As expected, the ruling party bet on current Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava.
The major issue for most of the non-parliamentary opposition remains unity.
Dzidziguri and Davitashvili have already announced their decision to take part in a primary to select a united candidate for the opposition, although the group’s unity seems fragile nonetheless.
According to Kakha Kukava of the Conservative Party, the amendments to the election code, which are already being discussed in parliament, have made the primary even more vital for the opposition.
Full Story... |
|
|
Medvedev offers Europe security
Print version
Author: Story by Irakli Aladashvili, Editor-in-Chief, Arsenali military and analytical magazine
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented a draft agreement on European security to the international community this week. The agreement, in the Kremlin’s opinion, will reinforce peace in the Euro-Atlantic and Euro-Asian space.
The Kremlin invites all countries from “Vancouver to Vladivostok” to sign the agreement. The invitation is also extended to international organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OSCE and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and CIS.
The draft agreement consists of 14 articles.
Article Seven states that if an attack occurs on any signatory country, other signatories can perceive the attack as a challenge to their own states. Moreover, they can provide immediate military assistance before the U.N. Security Council takes the necessary measures.
Article Two states that if a signatory country is simultaneously a member of any military union, coalition or organization, it should make all efforts to ensure that no military organization takes a decision threatening the security of the countries signatory to the European security agreement.
To analyze the article, if, for example, NATO member country Italy signs the European security agreement, its government should not allow NATO to plan any military operation against Russia, for example, another signatory to the agreement.
The idea behind the proposed initiative may truly be to enhance its own security. However, reality shows the opposite – no one is making any trouble with Russia. On the contrary, the Kremlin is always active in this regard and threatening its neighbors. In August 2008 it exercised military aggression against its southern neighbor Georgia. Later Russia’s occupied forces kept up their presence in the three Georgian regions of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Akhalgori.
Full Story... |
|
|
Abkhazia faces presidential dilemma
Print version
Author: Story By Zaza Jgharkava
The presidential elections Dec. 12 will be the first in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia since Russia recognized its independence last year.
Sergei Baghapsh is considered the number-one presidential candidate because he is currently the president. Raul Khajimba, the former vice president, continues to be the favorite of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. It is thought that the third contender, Beslan Butba, is backed by Russian energy giant Gazprom. Official support from the Kremlin is vital for the candidates with Russian media the predominant source of information in the region and Moscow’s economic might be the backbone of separatist Abkhazia.
It is probable that a repeat of the 2004 election will occur, where the main political fight was between the incumbent president and the former vice president Baghapsh and Khajimba.
The Kremlin will probably voice its favored candidate in the first round to avoid a repeat of the presidential election five years ago that nearly resulted in civil war when Khajimba did not win. It is thought that Moscow sees its friendship with the economically challenged breakaway region as more than just a one-way street. If Abkhazia wants the money and support, then it has to meet Russia halfway, and the Kremlin sees meeting halfway as electing a Moscow-backed leader.
Full Story... |
|
|
Window on Eurasia
School texts in post-Soviet states present Russia as enemy, study finds
Print version
Author: Story by Paul Goble
With the exception of only one country and the partial exception of a second, ten post-Soviet states are now using textbooks that present Russia in all its historical forms as the enemy of the peoples of these countries, a pattern that is likely to make it more rather than less difficult for these countries to cooperate in the future.
That is the conclusion of a 391-page report released today in Moscow on “The Treatment of the General History of Russia and the Peoples of the Post-Soviet Countries in the History Textbooks of the New Independent States.”.
Supported by a grant from the Government Club Foundation to the Moscow Center of Social Technologies, a group of researchers examined 187 school history textbooks and teacher guides from 12 non-Russian countries to see how schools in each are presenting both Russian and national history. Books from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are not included.
The scholars concluded “with regret” that “except for Belarus and (to a lesser degree) Armenia, all the remaining countries have moved to present the rising generation with a nationalistic view of history, based on myths about the antiquity of one’s own people, about the high cultural mission of its ancestors and about ‘the cursed enemy’” – the Russians.
Full Story... |
|
|
Two teens released
Conflict resolution expert says detainees swapped
Print version
Author: Story by Tamar Kikacheishvili
A de facto South Ossetian court released two Georgian teens Dec. 2. Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammerberg crossed the administrative border late that evening together with Giorgi Romelashvili and Aleko Tsabadze. Alongside Levan Khmiadashvili and Viktor Buchukuri, the teens had headlined local media the past month after being detained by de facto South Ossetian border guards. Romelashvili and Sabadze received a probationary sentence and Khmiadashvili and Buchukuri were each sentenced to one year in prison. Meanwhile, the EU diplomat said the remaining two teens will be released within 10 days.
The case of the four teens was discussed Dec. 2 in Tskhinvali.
The day before the trial, de facto South Ossetian officials released information that Hammarberg took five prisoners from Tbilisi to Tskhinvali who were arrested in Georgia after the August 2008 war with Russia. The Interior Ministry refrained to comment. According to information from the South Ossetian side, the detainees Ibragim Laliev, Lavrenti Kaziev, Iakob Tekhov, Vladimer Eloev and Pavlik Tekhov were released.
Georgia Today contacted Conflict Resolution expert Paata Zakareishvili about the release of the teens. Zakareishvili confirmed the information spread in South Ossetian and Russian media that the sides had swapped detainees.
Full Story... |
|
|
|
Top | Go Back |
|
|
.jpg)
