Faint praise for Georgian election
Mikheil Saakashvili's victory in Saturday's Georgian presidential election inspired this great moment in qualification from The Economist: Notwithstanding the medias bias in favour of Mr Saakashvili, the blurring of the line between his roles as the president and as a candidate, and reported cases of intimidation and pressure, the poll was "in essence consistent with ...
Mikheil Saakashvili's victory in Saturday's Georgian presidential election inspired this great moment in qualification from The Economist:
Mikheil Saakashvili's victory in Saturday's Georgian presidential election inspired this great moment in qualification from The Economist:
Notwithstanding the medias bias in favour of Mr Saakashvili, the blurring of the line between his roles as the president and as a candidate, and reported cases of intimidation and pressure, the poll was "in essence consistent with most international standards for democratic elections" said the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Inspiring stuff. Opposition candidate Levan Gachechiladze has himself declared victory and accused Saakashvili of stealing the election. As expected, large protests have already been held but the results are likely to stand. For all its flaws, one election observer described it as "the first election where no one was 100 percent sure whether they were going to win or not," which is itself a victory. The strong showing by the opposition should also help to curb some of Saakashvili's autocratic impulses in the future and temper some of the undue enthusiasm that some Westerners have for this promising but flawed leader.
The folks at the Kremlin, on the other hand, are shocked, shocked to find electoral irregularities happening in their backyard. This statement is pretty rich:
Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement describing the presidential race as marred by a raft of violations, including "widespread use of administrative resources, blatant pressure on the opposition candidates, stringent restriction of access to financial and media resources."
Takes one to know one, I guess.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
More from Foreign Policy

What Putin Got Right
The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukraine—but not everything.

Russia Has Already Lost in the Long Run
Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future.

China’s Belt and Road to Nowhere
Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy is a “shadow of its former self.”

The U.S. Overreacted to the Chinese Spy Balloon. That Scares Me.
So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible.