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Georgia’s postelection calm has been “shaken” by triumphant members of the Georgian Dream Coalition who are challenging “a dozen regional vote counts in hopes of securing additional parliamentary seats.”
In response to the protest, some of which turned violent, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the Georgian Dream coalition, is urging his followers “to end street protests and wait for change to come through legal means.”
Additionally, “a newspaper in Tbilisi published a full-page list of the names of guards and other officials at Gldani prison in Tbilisi, where a recent abuse scandal took place, in what seemed to be an invitation for revenge.” These events have heightened concerns about Georgia’s stability because the country has “no record of a peaceful transfer of power.”
Mr. Ivanishvili has “given mixed signals” about how he plans to re-structure the government. When “asked what would happen to Mr. Saakashvili and the half-dozen officials closest to him," he said, “’what awaits them is the court and the law.’”
Many fear that “Mr. Ivanishvili’s supporters have dangerously high expectations for the postelection period.” Human Rights experts—including Giorgi Gogia, a researcher for Human Rights Watch—,warn that “this new government needs to say very clearly that they should not be taking justice into their own hands.”
