The answer seems a resoundant 'NO'!!!

May 21 2008  Zugdidi, Georgia
Parliamentary Election Day
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=18302

WATCH THE VIDEO, by Michael Ross McConnell, http://www.driveway.com/c1g5u0b9z1
[DAY OF REVOLT, TBILISI]

Many reports in at 10am, already, of vote rigging and non-
transparencies

“Far from democratic parliamentary process, nor a fair and balanced
election”, says Matthew L. Bryza

ONLY A FULLY RE-LOADED NEW PARLIAMENT
 WILL BE THE BEST SHOT FOR THE  FUTURE OF GEORGIA

                               by Matthew L. Bryza
Georgia needs a totally new opposition, or she will sink.
                         For the Future of Georgia !!

I believe Ms. Hammick, a reporter recently writing for JANE'S DEFENSE
WEEKLY, upon the upcoming election in Tbilisi, was practicing the art
of, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, of "the test of a first rate
intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at
the same time, and still retain the ability to function".

How so? She was evidently flipping through her mind the several
conflicting tentative dates set for the parliamentary elections,
starting back in late 2003. Since Nov. 23rd, 2003, when President
Saakashvili parachuted into his position as ruler of Georgia, and the
rarely clarified-in-the-media Georgian constitutional amendments,
made in December, 2005, most people are understandably deeply confused
and
divided on basic democratic procedures here, regarding efforts that
would help the majority of people, rather than propping up some cold
and abstract ideology in its stead, helping old insiders and new
“graspers,” only.

Here is a blurb from Freedom House back in mid 2005, to refresh your
memories of the jigsaw puzzle of parliamentary election procedures
here:

[First, Saakashvili and NED and the Liberty Institute set in train
the protests which brought him to power on 23rd November, 2003. Thus,
it
can be argued, that parliamentary elections should have been held in
Nov. of 2007.]

15.06.2005 - Source: Freedom House, ... the 2004 elections were
somewhat free and fair; however, the level of political pluralism had
been severely reduced, as no party could compete with National
Movement-Democrats

("Nations in Transit 2005") [#32929], [ID 4745]

"...the elections of 2004 were considered generally free and fair,
though voter lists were still not fully complete. There was no
harassment of the opposition. However, the level of political
pluralism was sharply reduced as the former ruling party completely
disbanded and no political group could compete with Mikhail
Saakashvili and his National Movement-Democrats.

Only one opposition bloc of the New Rights and Industrialists was able
narrowly to
overcome the 7 percent threshold for party lists."

Historical Margin Note #1 on Georgia before you read further:
Compared to Georgians and their 6 or 7 thousand year old fiercely
loyal and
family-relations-devoted traditions, how many Americans do you know
who actually continue to look after their old parents and older
grandparents and perhaps their great grandparents too, themselves?
Perhaps in the same household? These Georgians, all of them here,
would NEVER put an older family member into a rest home, or a Memory
Care Home or into a criminally overpriced USA-style and shamefully
profitable nursing/senior/memory care home, you know -- the kind of
racket in the States backed up in large measure by HHS/MEDICARE
political insiders, working along with State and Federal
congresspersons, to milk the tax systems bone dry!

These same Georgians are trying to use this familial passion and
commitment to
forge a new and democratic Parliament this May 21st, 2008, but the
likelihood of any success is as slender as the homeless of New
Orleans to get their property back via FEMA programs after Hurricane
Katrina.
The forces here preventing a true democracy in Georgia are the
identically same forces at work against them there in Louisiana and
Mississippi and Texas.

 Margin Note #2--QUESTION: How many Americans
typically speak and read three languages and alphabets, and who work
anywhere from 10 to 25 hours a week overtime, with not even a tetri
[penny] of paid overtime, and who never complain about the total lack
of labor laws coming out of their Parliament??? Again, nearly zero.
These Georgians here have not yet been educated by their strictly
censored media, in any shape or form, upon labor laws or labor
rights, yet the USAID personnel here and the US embassy swear this is
a
"beacon of light" regarding fulfillment of democratic ideals!

A whole new team of concerned Georgians need to take over their
parliament, this May 21st, these citizens desperately need new
opposition forces deep in their Parliament, and not only the elites
and millionaire businessmen/women that they now have as MPs, and THEY
should be the 'new ones' to select a new president, if there is to be
any hope of true democracy here in Georgia any year soon.

click here    http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2008/04/30927_en.pdf

[ for a full OSCE report on the unlikelihood of a fair and square
parliamentary election in Tbilisi on May 21, 2008  [HIGHLY
UNLIKELY] ]

A president such as "Misha" [short for Saakashvili], who galloped
into power overnight on the day quoted above, would be fairly tested
by
the people of his new democracy, if and only if, the people
themselves
gave him something like his report card grades after the last 4 long
years in which he could evaluate himself too, in careful and painful
self-examination. The result of a revitalizing and invigorating new
parliamentary election process, in which a `new batch of 2008
parliamentary MPs', not in any way part of Saakashvili's clan, nor
part of the current Opposition's clan, could and would implement
fresh and vigorous legislation and programs. If only they had been
allowed
to do so at the end of 2007, a global miracle would have been born –
a real beacon of light !!!

A real beacon of light, especially when one considers the helpful and
democracy-building funding from outside agencies of the last 4 years,
thanks to credits and currencies from the USAID, the EU, the UN,
SECO/ SDC, the German and Polish governments, et al, who have greatly
helped make many of the improvements the Georgians have desperately
needed,
after the mayhem and ugly scenarios following the collapse of
communism in this nation.

Isn't this Parliamentary “stuffing” the nub of the conflict today,
and a major cause of the loss of public and international confidence
in
the current Saakashvili government? Aren't I correct that these
Georgians need to immediately reload their Parliament?

Georgians themselves, excluding the ever and over and twice again
prospering current Members of Parliament, the normal children of the
legendary Family of Georgia are cut off at the knees from any kind of
truly democratic structures and planks and platforms, in nearly every
respect, in the current situation.

Can anyone remember how Shevardnadze reinstated most of his Parliament
after he dismissed
them, more or less, can you dig out these events from the faded
memories of the past? How many key players in Saakashvili's current
clan worked at one time [for quite a long while, indeed] on the
monorail of Shevaradnadze's express train to disunity and oblivion
and
hunger?

Will not the Saakashvili MPs and he as their leader, and most of the
old Opposition MPs, simply repeat the same mistakes again and again?

So we might conclude after an hour or two of productive thought on
this matter, [i.e., of a fresh and uncompromised Parliament], that
the Georgian people were indeed deprived of a timely, and legal, and
in-
their-favor, parliamentary election, in November of 2007, which might
have brought about the promising guiding-light of fresh teams of
Georgian MBAs and MDs and Masters degree winners, coming back from
USA, UK and Germany and France-- the EU, et al.

A parliament comprised of the principals and top teachers of Tbilisi
and Kutaisi and Batumi and Telavi schools, and Georgian physician-
activists for the desperately needed hospital care and health care
here for the struggling desperate people of Georgia, and along with
them also the passionate property rights activists fighting the
Chancellery, and the grey panthers of organized parties of
disgruntled pensioners, and the many magnificent and proud Georgians,
which
include displaced farmers from their hectares who are being replaced
by huge corporate conglomerate automated farms, owned by many current
MPs, these urgently needed new MPs -- who could have stampeded into
parliament as newly elected MPs this if just given the chance -- and
that this imagined truly democratic and model parliamentary election,
could have come into being at the most opportune time for the natives
of this land, late 2007, early 2008, consisting of the non-elite of
Georgia, basically. They would have swept out most of Misha's MPs,
and along with them the bulk of old Shevardnadze and Moscow-
resonating
fiddlers too, who/which are frequently and deeply embedded in the
half- dozen or more, old and very tiresome Opposition parties here, as
time
rolls on like tank treads on these pot-holed streets?

I am sure you had a point. What was it?  Misha is an endearing
diminutive for Michael.  So if you are not so fond of Saakashvili, why
use a sweet name for him?  In the English language, sometimes a more
formal name can be negative.  Thus, leave off a title but refer to the
individual as Mr. Saakashvili or even leave off the Mr.and call him as
Saakashvili alone.

You seem to imply that starting from scratch is Georgia's best option.  
What is the provision for dissolving Georgia's Parliament in its
constitution and what is the procedure?

tootsie.in.parliam...@gmail.com wrote many long and rambling things:

On May 21, 4:13 pm, ++ <fri...@spambot.com> wrote:

Georgia’s Parliamentary Elections – Unprecedented Brutality  and
Election Fraud Findings of the observation of the Parliamentary
Elections of May 21 2008
May 2008

 Human Rights Monitoring Program.: Black Sea Trust, the Latvian
Embassy to Georgia, Cordaid, and the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) In addition, we would like to highlight the timely contribution
that Ivar Dale and Aage Borchgevink, representatives of the Norwegian
Helsinki Committee, made in documenting the Khurcha incident, which
took place on election day in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, and
it proved to be an election-related “breaking news story”. Their
timely and highly professional report has added much insight into the
understanding of the 2008 Georgian Parliamentary Election.
Background

When it was learned that Parliamentary Elections were scheduled to be
held in the spring of 2008, the Human Rights Centre focused its
resources and professional expertise on observing a full range of
activities and processes related to the Georgian Parliamentary
Elections.  The Center’s objectives in this respect were: first to
determine how closely Georgia’s electoral process adhered to accepted
international standards, especially in several problematic Georgian
regions where election violations had occurred in the January 2008
snap-presidential elections; secondly, to increase the overall degree
of public awareness about political processes taking place in Georgia;
thirdly, to assist in making the political process in Georgia more
transparent, not only for citizens but for international stakeholders
as well.

The comprehensive goal in our concerted efforts has been to assist in
the consolidation of the democracy that is unfolding or not, within
Georgia. We are also assisting in the realization of open and
transparent elections, and to further educate the wider public in
terms of the developmental stage of Georgian democracy, especially
since the national media is not doing anything at all in this
direction.

This report is divided into two parts. The first section of the report
deals with the findings from the Human Rights Centre during the pre-
election campaign.  The second part reflects the Center’s experience
and findings over the events that took place on Election Day.

Finally, the report ends with a summary, conclusions and several
accompanying policy-related recommendations.

PRE- ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Members of the Human Rights Center network have been actively involved
in the monitoring of the pre-election campaign. The staff has been
especially focused on the level of adherence to election procedures by
various actors who were involved in the pre-election campaign. We
wanted to see how closely the process conformed to procedures and
guidelines of the Central Election Commission (CEC) and in enabling
Georgian legislation.  Various election-related violations observed
during the pre-election campaign can be classified in the following
six different categories:
* Direct and indirect threats on members of local and district
election commissions;
* Direct and indirect threats towards voters;
* Bribing of  voters;
* Preventing meeting of opposition leaders
* Active use of administrative resources by the ruling National
Movement party
* Irregularities related to the voter’s lists
Specific examples of the above-mentioned types of violations are
detailed in the following findings, which have been clearly documented
by the journalists of the Human Rights Centre. Representatives of
other organizations, including the media and international observers,
have also observed the same pattern of violations.

Diary of Pre-election Terror

Representatives of the opposition parties have been unwaveringly in
blaming the Georgian government for open and blatant political
repression and acts of political terrorism and physical violence. They
have alleged on many occasions that the ruling political party, with
the support of its activists, including a network of law enforcers,
have resorted to “strong-arm tactics” -- and for them to prevail in
elections they had been supported by governmental resources, and
assisted by governmental administrative employees. Supporters of
opposition political parties have been openly repressed and threatened
with loss of jobs. Some of the worst instances as described by non-
governmental organizations took place in the Kakehti region of East
Georgia. However, these are not isolated cases to this specific
region. The case studies and examples provided in this report are but
a reflection of what had transpired in parliamentary elections on a
national level.

Police Detained Member of Egalitarian Institute.

Mikheil Kachkachishvili, member of the non-governmental organization
Egalitarian Institute was detained by patrol police in the run-up to
the parliamentary elections. Fikria Chikhradze, a single mandate
candidate from the United Opposition in Telavi told how law enforcers
had illegally taken Kachkachishvili into police custody as he was
traveling to take part in a political meeting in Telavi, a regional
town in East Georgia.

“They stopped his car on a pretext. When the police were asked why
they had pulled the car over, they were only willing to say that
because Mikhail looked suspicious,” explained Fikria Chikhradze.
However, it did appear to eyewitnesses on the scene that his detention
was but a sample of the government’s willingness to use any means at
its disposal to frustrate and place stumbling blocks being able to
attend scheduled meetings organized by members of opposition parties.
Mikhail had only wanted to participate in the pre-election campaign on
a level playing field that should have been afforded all political
parties.
In this case, Mikhail Kachkachishvili was subjected to drug testing
for a controlled substance. However, the test results only proved that
the member of the political party was not under influence of alcohol
or any other mind altering substance.

Nino Petriashvili, wife of the detainee, stated at the time that she
was actually driving the car and not her husband. She claimed that the
police had been following the car all morning on the day of the
incident.  “Since Misha (Kachkachishvili) was subsequently released,
patrol police were only able to fine him for parking his car in the
wrong place. However, as his wife noted, the police should have fined
her instead.”

Election HQ of Republic Party Raided in Kvareli

May 10, 2008, the election HQs of Vano Lomidze, single mandate
candidate from Republic Party in Kvareli District in Kakheti Region
was raided, village of Akhalsofeli.

Representatives of the Election HQ had their party’s flags and banners
ripped up and other equipment in the office was deliberately
vandalized.   It was also reported to Human Rights representatives
that the headquarters of opposition MP candidate Giorgi Benashvili, of
the Dedoplistskaro district, had his banners and posters and election
paraphernalia ripped off also.
Republician Party members consider the incident to have been connected
with the visit of top candidates on the election list of the National
Movement party. They had visited Kvareli earlier that same day. “Our
supporters asked critical questions to the leaders of the ruling party
and they became irritated. Upon their departure, local members of the
National Movement turned on us and took out their revenge,” explained
Mzia Khutuashvili, a party member.

It was also asserted at the time that a criminal case was to be
launched by officers of the Kvareli Police department. However, the
members of the Republic Party had little faith in the outcome of any
pending investigation. It was later learned that Zaza Gelashvili,
single mandate candidate of the ruling party in the Kvareli district,
is also the former head of the Kakheti Police Department.
Local Stations Block Single Mandate Candidates from TV
Merab Katamadze, single mandate candidate of the Republic Party in
Akhmeta District, told HRIDC that as a consequence of the intervention
of local authorities, two Akhmeta district TV Stations refused him the
opportunity to air his pre-election campaign clips.

Katamadze reported that despite how long the TV station had been
requested to provide this opportunity in writing, the local cable TV
Company “Kakheti” had been delayed in releasing the text supporting
the candidate in subtitles, and after two days, and on the third day
after being aired, the broadcast was suddenly cancelled.

On May 21, 4:13 pm, ++ <fri...@spambot.com> wrote:

for the no nonsense report on the May 21 Georgian Parliamentary
elections fraud and lack of any true transparency.

For once, NED has partially funded a project that enables democracy,
rather than DISABLE it.  What other NGOs and governments fund the
Human Rights team there?

It was refreshing for at least once NOT to see the status quo lame and
limping US-style of journalism in this report, the alleged "fairness"
of FOX TV,  which is not helping the citizens of the United States
today as the economy and job market tanks, and for the same reasons
that worn down at the heels method will never help citizens of other
nations in any event.

This report was done in the classic European style of reporting, and
it is about time something came out of Tbilisi that does not smell of
BP Oil pipeline forces nor the US State Department.

I have only one criticism.  Couldn't you have used even MORE simple
Georgian voters complaints and citizens word of mouth in what they
felt, thought, and experienced, on that notorious day?  And thank you
for not reporting the foul words that policemen were shouting at
voters in many of the voting polls.  I was there, and what i heard had
my ears burning and such words should never be heard by children.

Martin