The Best of a Bad Lot: Ogden on Who to Vote For

OPED

Politics and the weather are two things that British people discuss with strangers the most, and talk about both in much the same way; that they are bad and likely to get worse. There's a similar feeling in Georgia, but with much more apathy than there once was. People in Britain positively enjoy scoffing at the idiocy of those with other opinions, smiling and shaking their heads at left-wing or right-wing ignorance, but things have undergone rather a rapid change in Georgia since the last election four years ago.

Anyone who has been in Georgia for longer than two hours will know that Georgians are a passionate sort of people, but even old Georgia hands who had been here for years were shocked in 2012 at the displays of loyalty to politicians and their parties. Cars screeching around the streets with flags streaming from their windows, and chaotic rallies with people shouting 'Misha!', 'Bidzina!' and the Georgian for 'Mr. Chairman!' while calmer heads looked on and wondered if they were going to trash the place. Supporters of both sides had strong beliefs about the future; Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) party loyalists believed that if Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream (GD) came to power then Georgia would once again find itself under the yoke of Russia with its European ambitions sunk. GD fans, meanwhile, thought that Ivanishvili, with eight billion dollars in the bank, would share his wealth with his native people. Neither scenario from either side has happened.

(Incidentally, it did not seem to have occurred to Georgian Dream fans that if Bidzina really wanted to make his people rich by gifting them portions of his immense wealth he would have done it long ago. I challenged people on this, and received the same answer: 'Saakashvili prevented it'.)

Since I was not yet a Georgian citizen back then, I didn't vote in the elections, but personally my support was for the UNM; not because I particularly liked them, but because they had run the ship of state for the better part of a decade and dragged it out of the Third World into a rapidly developing nation which was serving as a shining example that other former Soviet republics have not been able to follow. It seemed reasonable to back a party made up of experienced pro-Western politicians rather than take a chance on a billionaire with no political experience who people had never heard of a year previously and had made all of his money in Russia...and, to wit, barely spoke Georgian. Even I could hear him substitute Georgian words for Russian ones; whether this was out of habit or ignorance of his native language, it was hardly in line with his party's supporters yelling 'Georgia for the Georgians!'

Naturally, admitting that I would prefer it if the UNM won the elections branded me as a diehard supporter of Saakashvili; at that time, you couldn't be anything else. The cynical British attitude of voting for the best of a bad lot was alien to Georgians back then. Saakashvili was an angel, or the devil, in human skin; Ivanishvili was a saviour, or a Russian infiltrator bent on dragging Georgia back under Moscow.

Now, though, people just don't seem to care. Whoever they vote for, they believe they will be disappointed; it's gospel truth, and something that countries like Britain or the United States are more than used to. One doesn't have to like politicians or their parties to vote for them, the only difference in Georgia is that people are accustomed to voting for the man rather his party. Georgia was never going to evolve into a healthy (?) two-party system in the Westminster style when its principle characters were synonymous with the parties themselves. Bidzina denies that he is still part of Georgian Dream, yet is always the keynote speaker at party conferences; for his part, Saakashvili makes no secret of his contact with the UNM and makes video addresses from his new stronghold in Odessa, blind to the fact that his party (and his legacy) would stand the test of time if he just stood back and let others take the reins. As things are, no dominant personality has emerged from the UNM to replace him.

As a Georgian citizen now, I personally don't want to see either party succeed. As much as I admire Saakashvili for what he did for Georgia years ago, his time has passed. If nothing else, it hardly speaks in a country's favour if it needs one man and one man alone to lead it. Nor do I want Georgian Dream to return to power, with their footballers in senior government posts, their constant reshuffles (even of the Premiership) and the small shadowy figure of a billionaire with a vacant grin.

These two parties have shown themselves incapable of shaking their founders and former (?) leaders. As a citizen, then, it is my wish for a new party to rise; a party, not a man. Let's start the establishment of a truly democratic system all over again. It's the best of a bad set of choices, but that's democracy.

Tim Ogden