Research on the Practice of Realization of Political and Electoral Rights of the Ethnic Minority Groups for Georgia’s 2020 Parliamentary Elections and 2021 Local Self-Government Elections

Research on the Practice of Realization of Political and Electoral Rights of the Ethnic Minority Groups for Georgia’s 2020 Parliamentary Elections and 2021 Local Self-Government Elections

Georgia, as a transitional democracy, constantly undergoes reforms and transformations to develop into a
consolidated democracy. Together with other pre-conditions, this goal first and foremost requires existence of
structurally and institutionally sustainable as well as effectively functioning political parties and on the other hand
healthy, competitive and fair election environment to allow the voters make a free choice from multiple options.
Public’s quantitative and qualitative participation in the political and election process is vital, since it shapes general
public attitudes and opinion vis-à-vis the entire process and at the same time provides ground for an in-depth
discussion to what direction a country’s participatory democracy process is headed.

As a result of hermeneutic analysis of elections hold in Georgia, we see emergence of a rather pessimistic trend that
many voters are nihilistic vis-à-vis political and electoral processes in general which may be attributable to a number
of mutually reinforcing factors. These factors include lack of adequate development level of the political parties which
is clearly indicated by significant problems and challenges in terms of observing ethical and moral standards during
the election process. The public’s generally poor low political, civic and electoral culture is a no less important
problem which in turn negatively affects electoral and political processes.

Unfavorable public attitude vis-à-vis public policy as well as political processes and institutions in general was an
important factor for 2020 and 2021 electoral cycles.

According to the results of public opinion polls, published in August 2021 by the National Democratic Institute (NDI)
and CRRC-Georgia, public was pessimistic about country’s direction and performance of the institutions. The citizens
were expecting from the elected officials to carry out policies focused on the needs of population. In addition, political
crisis in the country further undermined public trust in the country’s direction and political leadership. Only quarter of
the surveyed population believed that Georgia was going to the right direction and mere 35% thought there was a
democracy in the country.

It is also noteworthy that as compared to August 2020 these figures significantly decreased in 2021. 1
When dealing with an issue of public participation in electoral and political processes, it is visible that there is a very
acute problem of inclusivity of the ethnic minority groups.

Stakeholders are well aware that political and civic integration of the ethnic minorities, particularly in the regions with
compact settlement of the ethnic minorities, has been an important challenge for Georgia. This also includes
problems related to the electoral behavior.

Although voter turnout among the ethnic minorities is usually high, they still lack informed participation in the electoral
processes and are not well-aware of their civic responsibility.

The in-depth analysis of electoral and political processes illustrates that groups traditionally belonging to the ethnic
minorities are characterized with higher electoral vulnerability which in turn is attributable to a number of factors.
These factors are as follows:

 Insufficient command of the Georgian language
 Low level of integration of the ethnic minorities into the country’s political, socio-economic and cultural
environment
 Limited access to the Georgian information resources due to language barrier
 Inadequate political communication between the center and periphery
 Insufficient political, civic and informed electoral participation culture among ethnic minority individuals
 Scarcity of regular and subject-matter discussions between the political parties and local community groups
 Lack of interest and will of the political parties vis-à-vis necessity of broader participation of the ethnic
minorities in the political processes
 Political spectrum’s imperfect perceptibility of real problems, concerns, needs, interests and challenges of the
ethnic minorities and accordingly, lack of proper vision and political initiatives to respond them
 Alienation of the ethnic minority groups from the state and in some cases total lack of self-identification with
the state

On top of these challenges there is another issue in terms of electoral vulnerability. Specifically, regions with compact
settlements of the ethnic minorities have always been a significant source of votes for the ruling parties and therefore
played an important role in providing legitimacy to the government.

Therefore, study of realization of political and electoral rights of the ethnic minority groups in the electoral process as
well as definition and analysis of factors promoting or hindering political representation and electoral participation is of
vital importance. This work, entitled as “Research On the Practice of Realization of Political and Electoral Rights of
the Ethnic Minority Groups for Georgia’s 2020 Parliamentary Elections and 2021 Local Self-Government Elections” is
intended to address these issues.

2022-03-31 19:42:24| | 3858