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Abkhazia's President Sergei Bagapsh (shown) sees little hope of a breakthrough in independence talks with Georgia's Saakashvili

SUKHUMI (Tiraspol Times) - Abkhazia's President Sergei Bagapsh believes that any talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have little chance of achieving a breakthrough, Interfax reported Monday.

" - If another president had been elected, it could have been possible to resume dialogue with Georgia, but not on Abkhazia's political status. Any talks with Saakashvili in the current situation have no future," says Sergei Bagapsh, commenting on the officially announced victory of Mikheil Saakashvili in the Georgian snap presidential elections.

Although the election was marred with irregularities, leading Western officials, including spokesmen for NATO and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) quickly recognized Saakashvili's re-election.

The opposition claims it has evidence of fraud that invalidated up to 100,000 votes. Independent NGOs have compiled 450 instances of vote rigging throughout the country. If tallied correctly, the voters would have forced Mikheil Saakashvili into a second round, opening the door for a united opposition campaign and his potential loss of the presidency.

Election of Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili is in doubt, with opposition showing hundreds of cases of voting fraud.

Election fraud, voter intimidation in Georgia

Independent journalists and human rights campaigners in Georgia say that the election campaign was fraught with abuse as the government sought to keep Saakashvili in power despite widespread voter rejection.

Saakashvili’s popular support has collapsed, after he received the Soviet-like result of 96 percent of the vote in uncontested elections in 2004.

The Georgian leader's time in power has been filled with controversy and lowering living standards. According to the International Monetary Fund, poverty levels remain at about 30 percent and unemployment is increasing. Distrust in the judiciary has soared from 36 percent of respondents in 2004 to 62 percent in 2006.

Opposition demands for reform have been met with heavyhanded responses from Saakashvili's government. According to a Human Rights Watch report with the title Crossing the Line, some 50,000 demonstrators were peacefully calling for elections and the release of political prisoners. Demands were made for Saakashvili to resign. In response, the police and army used “violent and excessive force” involving tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets against fleeing protesters that resulted in hundreds of people requiring hospital treatment. The government forces then attacked the private-owned Imedi TV station, beat up journalists and smashed up their broadcasting equipment so extensively that it took more than a month and well into the election campaign before the TV station could begin transmissions again.

Russia questions OSCE double standards

The Western powers’ rush to legitimise the election result and declare Saakashvili victorious was in marked contrast to the bitter attacks made on the Russian parliamentary elections held on December 2 when the leader of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, Göran Lennmarker, unilaterally declared that “It was not a fair election.”

This time, the chief of the OSCE electoral monitoring mission in Georgia, US congressman Alcee Hastings, did not even wait for the polling to finish before declaring—on the morning of January 5—that democracy had taken a triumphant step in Georgia and that “by virtue of hard competition during the election campaign, I think, these elections were the choice of the Georgian nation.”

In contrast, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned Hastings’s “premature” and “superficial” remarks about “the triumph of Georgian democracy” and stated that the election campaign was not “free and fair.” It claimed that the media, non-governmental organizations and opposition figures had reported numerous cases of violations of the electoral laws by the state and that “the presidential race was marked by the widespread use of administrative resources, open pressure on opposition candidates and severe limitations on their access to financial and media sources.” The Foreign Ministry statement reminded its readers that the election campaign “was actually launched against the background of a state of emergency” - something which the West condemned when Pakistan's president recently toyed with the idea of doing the same.

Abkhazia: Elections took place in another country

In Abkhazia, the proof of fraud in Georgia's election has little effect. Whether or not there the widespread vote rigging took place, Abkhazia remains unaffected, its President says.

" - The elections in Georgia mean nothing to Abkhazia. These were elections in a neighboring state," Bagapsh told Interfax.

Like Pridnestrovie, Abkhazia seeks international recognition of its 'de facto' independence. All eyes are on its own future as an independent, sovereign country and it has little interest in the domestic politics of Georgia.

With Kosovo inching closer to independence, Abkhazia has announced that it sees Kosovo as a precedent. It rejects double standards which attempt to rally support for Kosovo's independence while rejecting the same right to Abkhazia. Others have pointed out that such a policy of double standards will not work in the long run. In an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune with the title "Let's Get Real", America's Future Foundation and German Council on Foreign Relations scholars Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman focused on the need for a realistic approach to the issue of frozen conflicts on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The co-authors of the book "Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World" called for a major initiative to permanently resolve the conflict over the disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Lieven and Hulsman asked why the West maintains double standards about self-determination for NATO-hosting Kosovo but not for areas like Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

More hope in Moldova / Pridnestrovie situation

Although chilly, relations between Moldova and Pridnestrovie are not as bad as those between Georgia and Abkhazia. In the case of Pridnestrovie, which is also known under the name Transdniestria, its President Igor Smirnov has recently expressed a willingness to renew status settlement talks with Moldova. In the case of Moldova, its President Vladimir Voronin also wants to restart the talks.

Pridnestrovie has asked that Moldova respects agreements that the two sides signed in 1997, 2001 and 2003. Pridnestrovie also wants Moldova to refrain from using pressure tactics, such as threats of economic or military pressure.

" - If we can agree to sit down and talk as grown-ups, without any sort of pressure and in a discussion of equals, then there is hope that we can reach an understanding on a number of items," says Smirnov. "But of course, Moldova has to honor the agreements that it signed in previous talks. Otherwise, what is the point of starting a new round if the earlier achievements are no longer worth the paper that they are written on," asks President Smirnov. (With information from WSWS, Interfax)

See also:
» Transnistria wants Moldova to keep its word and respect earlier agreements [1]
» Igor Smirnov: "Moldova should keep its earlier agreements first" [2]
» UN urges Georgia to respect Abkhazia cease-fire [3]
» Abkhazia voting calm and democratic, MPs say [4]