Georgia legislative election, 2003
Encyclopedia
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Georgia on November 2, 2003. According to statistics released by the Georgian Election Commission, the elections were won by a combination of parties supporting President Eduard Shevardnadze
.
Valid votes cast: 1,909,215 60.1
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Party Votes % Seats
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Burjanadze-Democrats 167,908 08.8 15
For a New Georgia 407,045 21.3 38
Labour Party 229,900 12.0 20
New Right Party 140,259 07.3 12
Union of Georgia's Democratic Revival 359,769 18.8 33
National Movement 345,197 18.1 32
Others 259,137 13.6 -
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Total 1,909,215 150
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"For a New Georgia" was the electoral bloc that supported President Eduard Shevardnadze. The Revival Party was an ally of Shevardnadze. The National Movement (NM) was the party of opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili.
These results were annulled by the Georgia Supreme Court after the Rose Revolution
on November 25, 2003, following allegations of widespread electoral fraud
and large public protests which led to the resignation of Shevardnadze.
A new election
was held on March 28, 2004.
began coming in shortly after the polling stations opened. The biggest problem, however, was the voter lists prepared by the Georgian government.
Mikhail Saakashvili was among tens of thousands who were denied the right to vote. His name, along with names of many thousands across the country, was missing from the voter list prepared by the Georgian government. Entire neighborhoods were mysteriously removed from the voter list in the areas where opposition was likely to do well.
Georgian analysts described the vote as "the messiest and most chaotic election" the country has ever had.
"The government did everything to make this election chaotic. I think there were also (those in) government (who) did not want this election to be orderly because they knew they would lose it," said Ghia Nodia of the Caucasus Institute for Democracy and Development.
An international mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declared that the election fell short of international standards.
"These elections have, regrettably, been insufficient to enhance the credibility of either the electoral or the democratic process," said Bruce George, special co-ordinator of the OSCE chairman-in-office.
Some 450 international observers from 43 countries monitored the polls in one of the largest and longest election observation missions in the OSCE's history
Supporting the allegations of electoral fraud were also exit poll
s conducted by an American company, Global Strategy, which showed that the opposition had won by a large margin, with the National Movement coming first with 20% and the government block polling only 14% of the vote.
Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...
.
National summary of votes and seats
Voters: 3,178,593*Valid votes cast: 1,909,215 60.1
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Party Votes % Seats
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Burjanadze-Democrats 167,908 08.8 15
For a New Georgia 407,045 21.3 38
Labour Party 229,900 12.0 20
New Right Party 140,259 07.3 12
Union of Georgia's Democratic Revival 359,769 18.8 33
National Movement 345,197 18.1 32
Others 259,137 13.6 -
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Total 1,909,215 150
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- More recent figures show the true electorate to be about 2,130,000.
"For a New Georgia" was the electoral bloc that supported President Eduard Shevardnadze. The Revival Party was an ally of Shevardnadze. The National Movement (NM) was the party of opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili.
These results were annulled by the Georgia Supreme Court after the Rose Revolution
Rose Revolution
The "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
on November 25, 2003, following allegations of widespread electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
and large public protests which led to the resignation of Shevardnadze.
A new election
Georgia legislative election, 2004
Legislative elections were held in the Georgia on March 28, 2004. The elections followed the annulment of the November 2003 legislative elections, which were widely believed to have been rigged by the former President, Eduard Shevardnadze...
was held on March 28, 2004.
Fraud allegations
Reports of violence, voter intimidation and ballot box stuffingBallot stuffing
Ballot stuffing is the illegal act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. The name originates from the earliest days of this practice in which people literally did stuff more than one ballot in a ballot box at the same time...
began coming in shortly after the polling stations opened. The biggest problem, however, was the voter lists prepared by the Georgian government.
Mikhail Saakashvili was among tens of thousands who were denied the right to vote. His name, along with names of many thousands across the country, was missing from the voter list prepared by the Georgian government. Entire neighborhoods were mysteriously removed from the voter list in the areas where opposition was likely to do well.
Georgian analysts described the vote as "the messiest and most chaotic election" the country has ever had.
"The government did everything to make this election chaotic. I think there were also (those in) government (who) did not want this election to be orderly because they knew they would lose it," said Ghia Nodia of the Caucasus Institute for Democracy and Development.
An international mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declared that the election fell short of international standards.
"These elections have, regrettably, been insufficient to enhance the credibility of either the electoral or the democratic process," said Bruce George, special co-ordinator of the OSCE chairman-in-office.
Some 450 international observers from 43 countries monitored the polls in one of the largest and longest election observation missions in the OSCE's history
Supporting the allegations of electoral fraud were also exit poll
Exit poll
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual...
s conducted by an American company, Global Strategy, which showed that the opposition had won by a large margin, with the National Movement coming first with 20% and the government block polling only 14% of the vote.