Saakashvili’s party celebrated very modestly its convincing victory at the parliamentary election. Neither President himself, nor any large-scale festivities were noticed in the campaigning headquarters of the National Movement. No one was marching with cross-bearing flags along the nocturnal Tbilisi, like it was after presidential elections. Saakashvili’s supporters were watching the football final on TV, cheering up for Manchester (as Chelsea is considered to be a Russian club here).   

Saakashvili himself made a short address the next day. He thanked the voters and said he had not expected such a convincing support. After that he went to Kiev to take part in the next summit.

Two days after the election his campaigning headquarters were deserted. Only David Bakradze, the number one in the party’s ticket and the future speaker at the parliament, was holding obligatory meetings with journalists.

Bakradze is the first among equals in the cohort of new people substituting some odious members of the party in power. The old entourage of Saakashvili was more distinctive, though they seemed to be a nightmare for people. As for the new ones, they all look alike.    

David Bakradze is a typical young official of Saakashvili’s times. He’s well spoken of in the Georgian foreign office where he has worked several years. It is considered that a politician of this level must be featured with charisma. To tell the truth, I did not notice that. He did not wear tie to the meeting but the general impression was his attitude was rather formal.  

Q: Political experts say that the winning authority is a bit confused now. They say you did not count on such a huge advantage. So say please, did you expect these outcomes that are even better than the result by Saakashvili at the presidential elections?  

A: I wouldn’t say our victory was unexpected. In January Mikhail Saakashvili got over 50% of votes. Those votes were our starting point. Besides, we have done a competent campaigning that focused on finding solutions to concrete problems of concrete people. And after presidential election the government has completed a “50 Days” program, which was a series of steps towards improvement of social situation for the citizens. That has enabled us to attract even more voters. Unlike other parties, we did not criticize our competitors. We came to people. We proposed the programs for dealing with poverty, unemployment, taxation, for improving the public health care system, social protection etc. We have constantly been carrying out numerous polls and our rating was always a bit above 55%. So it did not come unexpectedly. But now we got more responsible: if we do not do what we promised, our rating would go down.        

Q: Mr. Bakradze, you referred to the percent gained by Mikhail Saakashvili. But even the European structures admit that the presidential elections were far from democratic standards.  

A: If you mean the final report by OSCE, it deals mainly with technical violations: someone did not send the protocol by fax to the Central Elective Commission and so on. As a result, due to technical and organizational errors a lot of protocols were canceled. But there had been no large-scale falsification done.  

Observers triumphing

…Soon it becomes clear that the topic is no good for our conversation. I tell to Bakradze about what I saw a couple of days ago at the polling stations. He denies everything and he does it firmly. “Even if it has been the way you are saying now, and the opposition affirms it too, that cannot have influenced the final outcome significantly”. Same is the tactic by OSCE observers. They began their report with listing of the violations committed: administrative resource, unequal news coverage in favor of the party in power, the Central Elective Commission refusing accepting any complaints, and the court refusing consideration of the complaints. But all that allegedly has had no significant influence on the election outcomes and these elections were another step by Georgia on the way to true democracy.   

The press conference by OSCE observers could have been boring too but for Mathias Yorsch, who lost his European reserve in Georgia. 

“We have a standard in the West which is not written in any official provision about the elections. This is the principle “The Loser congratulates the Winner”. The opposition in Georgia will stay unconstructive unless it learns this standard” said Mr. Yorsch.

The mercy of the winner

David Bakradze livened up when I passed from “minor” questions to more large-scaled ones, like those regarding Georgia-Russia relations. 

Q: Who of the two Russian leaders do you associate with the raising tensions in Abkhazia? Is it Putin or Medvedev?

A: I believe that President Medvedev has done no hostile act towards Georgia since he was elected. So the situation where you and Georgians have elected the new authority gives us a rare chance for bridging the gulf.   

I understood what it was about. The matter is that both elections were carried out with similar scenarios. Might it be a point for agreement between the two political regimes?  

I liked it that David Bakradze did not finally crush the defeated adversary. Russian authority with its huge resources and miserable opposition (unlike Georgian one) does not show such political generosity. 

And what is the opposition doing now? It seems to be shocked. However, its campaigning staffs have not dispersed, they only took the time-out. One well-known oppositionist, who preferred to stay anonymous, gave me an analysis of his own mistakes and those by his friends. He tried to do it impassionedly.    

“First, we mustn’t have quarreled among ourselves and have tried to pull the blanket. This has caused what has happened. Plus the authority organized hastily a few new parties like that of sportsmen whose main slogan was “For sport and for healthy lifestyle!” Along with that, the sportsmen declared themselves to be radical opposition. There were too many of us, so people just got confused. We need have had a single candidate!      

Second, to tell the truth, no one really understands what the reason for dissidence was. I think the authority has had its hand in it. Along with that, someone developed star fever. As a result, the Republicans left the United Opposition. This is one of the oldest parties in Georgia that has very good electorate living in Tbilisi and Batumi mainly. Despite their glorious history, constancy, constructivism and intellect, the Republicans never gained more than 3% percent. So this was the figure for this time too. And the United Opposition lost recognizable and respectable people and had to form the “ticket of ten” taking motley professional politicians and no lawyers or economists were included in that list.       

Also self-confidence growing into greediness has been harmful for oppositionists. They had money. And how did they spend it? At the end of the day, elections are related to technologies and PR. The more you pay the better result you get. Of course, the oppositional resource was incomparable to that by the authority and big business. But couldn’t they have hired a smart PR firm! No! They tried to do everything by themselves. The outcome was inarticulate campaign with unclear slogans, video clips and ineffective working in the regions…”    

This man listed more arguments after which I began to understand why no more than 3,000 people came to the meeting appointed for 21 May right after the election. And three days before the number of those to come was twenty times bigger.   

Everyone said that the improper time was chosen for the post-election meeting. It’s only some politicians who are indifferent to the final of the Champions League. Other men are quite normal…  

…People began to arrive at half past ten p.m. But even at eleven and twelve no oppositional leaders had appeared. The Levan Gachechiladze’s brother was warming up the crowd, his voice being carried away with the wind even with the microphone used.

The big screen alternated the broadcasting of the football match with the outcomes of the exit polls, allegedly carried out by the opposition. In reality, opposition had not wanted to spend money on the exit polls and it was not only me who knew that. So the crowd was puzzled at the figures presented…     

At last, at some minutes past one a.m., when people had no strength to wait, Levan Gachechiladze appeared before people.  

He said “I look at you and I lament seeing that so few came here”.   

We had waited for him almost three hours and his speech lasted about three minutes. He had even less strength than we had. He asked for a pause to invent the Plan. 

“What!” exclaimed Juliet, a woman sitting next to me on a SUV hood. “They haven’t made the Plan so far!”   

Gloomy-looking Gachechiladze left, while discontented people continued to stand. At that very moment Chelsea failed to score the penalty.