Page 50 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine September 2024

50 I Eurasia bne September 2024
Droa and Girchi – More Freedom merged to form “The Time For Change” and Lelo for Georgia, Anna Dolidze’s For the People and Freedom Square have also entered into a coalition.
Unifying force
Rather than try to distance herself from her party’s controversial founder, Bokuchava models her fierce advocacy for unity on the example of Saakashvili himself.
“Saakashvili’s main asset, even back
in 2003, was that he really acted as a catalyst and was a unifier. The Rose Revolution became possible because he acted as the unifying figure, bringing together different parties, different generations, different interests, to bring about the most important regime change in Georgia, ushering in an era of reforms that made Georgia as a state functional,”, says the new UNM chair.
Fast forward twenty years and, for Bokuchava, Saakashvili very much remains a motor for unity and is a source of “a lot of inspiration and confidence” in terms of party affairs – namely UNM’s push for an opposition that heads to the October elections on a unified list.
“President Saakashvili sees the importance of unity on the opposition front very, very clearly and is a
great advocate of unification,”, says Bokuchava.
Protests against the “foreign agent law” passed in May this year kick-started a conversation amongst the opposition
on the importance of unification and of not losing opposition votes, Bokuchava explains. Saakashvili, however, “began speaking about this even before the recent protests, which, to me, shows he is in very much touch with the sentiment of the Georgian public, despite being held hostage as a political prisoner of the Ivanishvili regime”, she says.
On his return to Georgia from Ukraine in October 2021 Mikheil Saakashvili was immediately arrested and has since been in prison in Georgia, convicted of abuse of power.
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Bokuchava stressed her moves as
UNM chair must reflect Saakashvili’s vision for the party and the upcoming campaign, despite the latter’s distance from his own party,. The reasoning for this allegiance goes beyond Saakashvili’s role as UNM founder and honorary chair – according to Bokuchava, Saakashvili is “the strongest electoral asset the party has” and must be kept at the heart of decisionmaking as “this is what our [UNM’s] electorate expects”.
Among Bokuchava’s priorities should her party win power is to “put an end to any possible controversy or any unanswered questions [regarding the UNM founder]”.
“In the 12 years of Georgian Dream
rule Ivanishvili has parroted Kremlin propaganda lines, including on accusations against President Saakashvili, and has used prosecutors and judges sanctioned respectively for connections to the Russian FSB and corruption.
This tell me quite clearly that the sentence for Saakashvili was written in the halls of the Kremlin,” Bokuchava says.
In her opinion, Saakashvili’s case signals the “absolutely vital” need in Georgia
for judicial reform, namely building
has “demonised” and tried to undermine with a campaign of anti-West propaganda.
Regulatory measures such as this rely on “the involvement of all necessary actors and buy-in from the public,”
but Bokuchava is confident a new UNM government will be able to wrap up any outstanding question marks surrounding the Saakashvili case, and simultaneously dig up plenty of dirt on Georgian Dream’s 12 years in office.
Protecting the votes
A commitment to unity will shape
how Bokuchava plays the upcoming elections on all levels: individual, party (UNM), political platform (Unity for
the Salvation), and within the entire pro-Western opposition. At the end of June, six Georgian opposition parties (including UNM and SA) signed a Declaration of Unity, outlining their vow to remain united pre and post elections around pro-European goals set forth by President Zourabichvili in her Georgian Charter. After initially being backed by Georgian Dream, Zourabichvili has now moved over to the opposition side.
The six also committed to protecting voters’ voices. Bokuchava hopes that,
“As the main opposition party in Georgia we most certainly exude a sense of strength, but in addition it is very important to show the public that our door remains open to new ideas and new people”
public trust in the courts and ensuring judges operate as per the rule of law, as opposed to politicised justice.
“It is important that whoever is asking the questions is guided by the law rather than by political vengeance. What
we have seen since 2012 is political revenge,” Bokuchava says.
As part of these much-needed reforms, Bokuchava highlights “a comprehensive process for verification of the integrity of judges at all levels of the judiciary”, a process which she says Georgian dream
whilst the complete unification she pushed for has not happened, all the pro-Western opposition parties will help facilitate “practical cooperation and unity, especially when it comes to protecting the votes”.
Critics argue the main intent behind GD’s passing of the foreign agent
law was to help secure a majority for themselves by deterring internal observation of the voting process, as under the new legislation foreign-funded NGOs must either declare themselves and be scrutinised or face heavy fines.