2008 Georgian parliamentary election

The pre-election period was principally monitored by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as well as several local watchdogs. The PACE observers reported “little or no improvement” in the political climate after the January 5 presidential election, which was held in the tense aftermath of the November 2007 political crisis and resulted in the reelection of Mikheil Saakashvili to his second term. The monitoring mission noted that “the political climate is still dominated by a lack of trust and absence of constructive dialogue between the authorities and the opposition”, one result of this being “the failure of the electoral reform that the authorities and the opposition agreed upon in the aftermath of the November 2007 events.”^[9]

The amendments to the election code passed by the Parliament in March 2008 took into account recommendations made by the PACE, such as the abolition of additional voters’ lists and voter registration on polling day; lowering of the electoral threshold from 7% to 5%; the simplification and clarification of election-related complaints and appeals procedures; the introduction of party representation in the District Election Commissions. However, the PACE noted that a number of its other recommendations remained unaddressed.^[9]

This period also saw a significant reshuffle among the major political players. On February 29, 2008, the moderate Republican Party of Georgia left the nine-party opposition coalition United National Council, which spearheaded anti-government protests in November 2007, announcing that they would run independently for the parliamentary election, targeting mainly moderate and undecided voters.^[10] On the other hand, the New Rights Party, which had distanced themselves from the 2007 demonstrations, now joined the nine-party coalition.^[11]

Another key event, which sent shockwaves across Georgia's political scene on April 21, 2008, was the refusal by Nino Burjanadze, the outgoing parliamentary chairwoman and Saakashvili's ally, to run on the president-led United National Movement (UNM) ticket, citing an absence of consensus within the UNM leadership regarding the party list.^[12]

Three election blocs and nine parties contested this election:^[13]

• United National Movement, ruling party led by President Saakashvili;
• United National Council – a nine-party bloc led by the New Rights Party with the Conservative Party of Georgia, Georgia's Way, Tavisupleba, On Our Own Party, People's Party, Movement for United Georgia, Georgian Troupe and National Forum.^[14] The New Rights was led by David Gamkrelidze. The bloc was led by the former presidential candidate and Saakashvili's principal rival Levan Gachechiladze, co-founder of the New Rights and its former chair;
• Republican Party of Georgia, led by Davit Usupashvili;
• Georgian Labour Party, led by Shalva Natelashvili;
• Christian-Democratic Movement, founded and led by the former Imedi TV journalist Giorgi Targamadze;
• Rightist Alliance – Topadze Industrialists, uniting Industry Will Save Georgia led by the beer magnate Gogi Topadze, the National Democratic Party and Unity led by the former Soviet Georgian leader Jumber Patiashvili;
• Union of Georgian Traditionalists – Our Georgia – Georgian Women Party for Justice and Equality alliance;
• Christian-Democratic Alliance, uniting the former presidential candidate Gia Maisashvili, the Green Party and Temur Shashiashvili, a former governor of Imereti region under ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze;
• The Georgian Politics, a party recently set up by Gocha Pipia, a member of the outgoing parliament;
• Our Country;
• National Party of Radical-Democrats of Georgia;
• Union of Georgian Athletes [ka].

The Central Election Commission refused to register 37 political parties for the election, on account of various irregularities in their submissions.^[15]

On May 5, 2008, the United States-based company Greenberg Quinlan Rosner published the results of a survey commissioned by the United National Movement. The results showed that the UNM received 44% of support, compared to 12% for the United National Council, 11% for the Christian Democratic Movement, 7% for the Georgian Labour Party, 4% for the Republican Party of Georgia, and 16% were undecided.^[16]

On election day, there was a shooting incident in the village Khurcha, near Zugdidi, in the west of the country. Three people were hospitalized. Close-up footage of the shooting was captured by a TV crew from Rustavi 2. President Saakashvili claimed that the shooting had been an attempt to disrupt the election. An investigation was carried out by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee within hours, and concluded that the shooting had most likely been carried out by Georgian forces.^[17]

On 22 May 2008, OSCE observers stated that the poll was an improvement from the presidential election held earlier that year, but that it was stilled marred by a number of imperfections.^[18] Early results indicated that UNM had 63% and the United National Council had 13%, but the opposition's partial results from Tbilisi gave the UOC 40%, and the UNM - 32%. The Christian Democrats and the Labour Party also cleared the threshold.^[19]

The United National Council and the Georgian Labour Party announced that they would boycott parliament, which held its inaugural session on June 7, 2008, while the Christian Democrats refused to join them.^[20][21]