Georgia is Having a Democratic Counterrevolution
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
►http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/10/02/georgia-is-having-democratic-counterrevolution/dyjg
Thomas de Waal Bloomberg, October 2, 2012
In Georgia today they are talking about the counterrevolution. The Oct. 1 parliamentary election in Georgia produced the kind of result that we don’t expect from elections in post- Soviet countries. The opposition won. The governing party of Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in the country’s peaceful Rose Revolution of 2003, has been defeated by the Georgian Dream coalition, led by Georgia’s wealthiest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
This is the first time in 20 years that Georgia — or indeed any of its post-Soviet neighbors — has seen political change through the ballot box rather than from crowds on the streets, and Georgia should be congratulated for that. We should be clear that this wasn’t an election fought by European rules: Saakashvili and his government did everything in their power to ensure a victory, deploying state resources and a loyal media to buttress support for the ruling party.
Yet, under heavy Western pressure, they allowed the opposition to compete. To his credit, Saakashvili recognized a result that went against him.
Broadly speaking, Saakashvili and his government lost for two reasons. Over the past nine years they have made impressive reforms, modernizing the bureaucracy, eliminating petty corruption and tackling organized crime.