We will face them with democracy (episode 7)
Young lawyers deepening democracy, last beers and goodbyes
Russian influence, election monitoring, election meddling, Foreign Interference, propaganda, disinformation, European policy, Transparency, democracy… In the world of OSINT and Disinformation, we are using all these words in every report, study, research, briefing or LinkedIn posts. But in Georgia, it was really happening, with real people, all of this and all at once. It would happen not on the internet, not on networks, not AI or Twitter, but on billboards in the streets, in physical polling stations, in a real parliament, in demonstrations.
So, we went to spend two weeks in Tbilisi, one before the elections, one after. This is a subjective view, in multi-episodes, of what I saw and understood.
This is a tale about European style democracy fighting Russian style authoritarianism in a small country at the crossroad of four continents.
Thanks, Eva Bauchau, for context, expertise, contacts and on-site support.
(This is 7th and last episode. Previous episode here)
Ringing at the door of the GYLA, the Georgian Young Lawyer Association, they are a bit mistrustful. They don’t open the door to me right away, ask who I am and who am I supposed to meet. Which is perfectly understandable given the fact that Georgian Dream has the power, managed to keep it, and vowed to use it to crush and ban the entire civil society and the opposition.
Eto and Sopo, working for DFRLab and target of Georgian Dream repression had their accounts frozen. On the ground of “Technical issues”, so you can’t complain or contest the decision with any rights.
This is the looming prospect for the entire and so vibrant civil society…
I meet with George, a young lawyer who agrees to take one hour to meet me in these crazy times.
“The turnout for these elections was pretty high, same turnout as in 2012. The expectation was that the government would change.”
I understand how, for him, the turnout is an indicator that alternation of power is needed in a society. This one will make it into my definition of what constitutes an election. “You saw the waiting lines in front of polling stations? This indicated that maybe it is time for a change.”
“It is natural for them to leave and for the coalition to come into power and to realise their three priorities: come into power, realise the 9 steps required for joining EU, restart the negotiations for EU membership.”
He also does not really understand what happened. This was the natural way of things.
“I don’t know why but the outcome was that the elections were rigged.”
He may not know the why but he knows exactly the how and he lists me the long series of violations that happened and they documented.
“Vote buying, violation of secrecy of the vote, violence and threats…”
He explains to me what they call “street guys”. Young thugs hanging around the polling stations. “They check who is coming and they say to people ‘you know who you have to vote for’”. “On TV there were reports of people being beaten.” And, as I saw during the election day, people from Georgian Dream with lists and checking if people came to vote. “They would also pay people”, that’s vote buying.
George goes on with the list of violations.
“There was double voting. A person was identified voting multiple times”. It involves a complicated scam with ID cards and the help from an accomplice inside the voting station. “Also, it could happen because the ink spray (to mark people who have already voted) was of bad quality.”
They ask for the annulment of the votes
“Now we demand that 99% of the votes are dismissed”.
Their main argument is the problem of vote secrecy because of the ballot box transparency. One can see the voter’s choice by looking at the back of the ballot paper because the paper was too thin.
“Two weeks before the election we told the Central Electoral Commission about the problem of papers being too thin.” They had training sessions before the elections to experiment the new electronic voting machines. Watchdogs had identified and reported the problems to the Central Electoral Commission. “They told us it was just training ballot papers and the real ones that they would use on election day will be thicker.”
Obviously, they lied…
“Do you trust the CEC?” I ask
“We have our doubts. For example, I saw the chairman of local CEC refusing to take documented claims of violation by simply saying “this is not evidence.”
The members of the CEC are appointed by the government. “They can’t say it out loud because they have to remain impartial, but you can sense they are biased.”
The good thing with GYLA is that they do not intend to waist any time trying to figure out what went wrong or why it did not work. They are already focusing on what to do next. They do have a plan.
“Now we go to court”
“Can you trust them?” I ask semi- innocently.
“No” (Of course not). “They US put sanctions on four judges involved in bribery” (in 2023 full story here)
But they have no choice. “We have to apply to the local court to then go the EU Human Rights court.”
Only five countries recognised this election. Can you guess? “Venezuela, Cuba, Hungary, Belarus and Russia”.
So how do you fight them?
“One fight is political; one fight is legal”. He did not even blink twice before answering. Democratic instinctive fight against authoritarianism.
“For the legal fight we go to courts, then to EU courts and we plead against the secrecy of vote violations and other violations. Politically we work with world leaders and give them the evidence and ask them to not recognise this government and isolate them. They can help in the long run”.
“Leaders of different countries have realised government is bad”. He is the second person to mention to me that, apparently, it took a long time before western government and partners realise how bad was Georgian Dream.
A good idea for sanctions would be not the visas but targeted travel bans. “It would be good if they impose travel bans for the families of the politicians. They all have their children studying abroad.”
He also thinks that this could backlash economically. “Economy is dependant on foreign companies investing in Georgia, in tourism… If the 2 stops, this could create an economic problem for the government”
They are also afraid of the point of no return. “It’s on the way of becoming fully authoritarian and when it is, it is very difficult to go back.”
They go through the crisis with their incredible determination. “The good news is that people are together. We do demonstrations and we want to be European and part of the democratic world.”
I ask if they are afraid of repression
“I would not say we are afraid.”
Again, this incredible determination to not show the bullies you fear them.
“We know it will happen. We don’t plan to run away. We will face them with arguments and with evidence”.
I feel the words resonate in my stomach. I don’t know how democracy can win over authoritarianism, but this is a lesson on how to fight…
I ask if they were expecting Georgian Dream to win.
“No, it’s not logical”.
He lists me all of what Georgian Dream did since they won the last elections. I still don’t get the logical thing.
“They dispersed demonstrations with water cannons, they stopped the adhesion process (to the EU)… They passed the Russian law, people came out, they passed the LGBTQ law, people came out. There were many reasons for Georgian Dream to lose but they managed to get more vote than in 2020?!”
Ok, this is not logical.
He tells me again that majority of Georgians are pro-EU. I know that already but at this point it feels good to say it and to hear it.
I ask what do they do when they don’t have to fight authoritarian government trying to rig the election to stay in power forever.
He works on “parliamentary control over the government”. “And I study rules and procedures and try to identify the best practice”.
The GYLA association they work on Judicial reforms, transparency, local government, they have programs on human rights, on minority rights, rights of convicted people. They also have a legal aid program to provide free legal advice for people who won’t have the money to pay for a lawyer.
This gives an idea of what will be this country once it will be allowed to reach its full democratic potential…
But what now?
Georgian Dream can decapitate the entire civil society in a snap.
“The Russian law is still enforceable. They can start to enforce this law, and they can abolish the entire NGO sector.”
One measure allows them to ask targeted NGOs to provide their data. All the data…
“They can ask for any data. Phone contacts, WhatsApp conversations, Facebook posts, bank accounts details. Through that they can also access religious belief, sexual orientation…” They can ask that for all NGO members and more. “They can ask for information about all our ‘clients’, people who benefitted from our free legal aid…”
They can also simply cut the founds. “I think they will start with that”. They are funded by Swede, EU, Netherlands, US Aid, the UK “all this will be closed because of the Russian law.”
“We will not register, and we will maybe have to close the association.”
Maybe they’ll even have to leave the country.
“We will enter the full authoritarian regime. Now we have to do anything to prevent that from happening” emphasis is on the “Now”. Before New Year. “After people will go to holidays, and they will forget.”
Will Georgia join EU?
Yes. “It is written in the constitution of Georgia” (article 78)
But not in the short term. “We need a lot of reforms, but the government is blocking them. We will have to work hard, and we will need help from EU as well.”
Maybe in 10 years…
Only thing we can do is to try to talk about Georgia. It is what George asks his friends to do. “Talk about us to the normal people, the people who are not aware, who do not read the news they don’t know about us. Tell them. Raise awareness…”
I tell him my plan to flood terrasses of western Europe with Georgian wine so my hipsters will be forced to ask about the people in this amazing little country with no physical border with Europe…
Last beers with Victor, our Franco-Georgian expat friend who came to help with the elections. He wants to stay there for some time. He is not exactly optimistic on the situation. He also felt the demonstration movement was struggling to keep its momentum. And he does not really see how to counter Georgian Dream without immense demonstrations and civil disobedience.
“Monday demonstration, it just lasted two hours. Usually it lasts all night”. The movement took heavy defeats. Russian law was passed, despite huge demonstrations that led to nothing. Now, the election, that was a severe blow… “And when I left the office last Saturday (election day), everybody was partying. I came back to my family, and everybody was sad and depressed. It was like going through another dimension.”
Georgians say it is a Georgian electoral tradition to celebrate victory for both the regime and the opposition. It is still a crazy emotional rollercoaster and hard on morale.
“Still, this exit polls it was not coming from nowhere! How did they get 54% when the exit poll was indicating 40%?”
Legitimate question. (Edison research conducted its own analysis: there answer is that this is not logical)
Victor does not understand why the president does not call for more demonstrations. Her mandate ends in December…
New elections, new hopes? Well, actually no. Georgian Dream passed a reform in 2017, and Zourabichvili will be the last Georgian president to be elected in direct presidential elections. Future president will be elected by parliamentary representation (namely Georgian Dream).
I teach to a young Russian girl how to say “mon accent est très mignon” in French. She asked. It can always be useful to be cute in French, it helped me in countless situation. And she will probably have to do a revolution at a point. A revolution in Russia, that would be useful…
She could not enter Bassiani club because she was Russian… She is not even that mad about it. I won’t even try to have an opinion at that point.
Time to leave Georgia…
With deep sadness obviously, even more because it is Friday, and the weekend party, and the demonstration on Monday, and, and, and…
Eva stays one more day. Georgia, this is how it starts, no one knows when it ends.
Any country deserves more than the politicians it gets, but here it is blatant. We can only hope, we can only pray that Europe will not be just useless. Not like the usual.
We leave knowing the future is extremely dark. But with a desire as high as the hope is terrible. This place is a crossroad of the incredible. Here you have all the anti-Putin youth that will do the revolution, you have all the support for Ukraine, it is here that Lebanese and Israelis can party (together somehow). It is where you find Armenians and Azerbaijanis…
Who would not want that place to be part of your empire? This is much bigger than Russia, Georgia is the peace in the middle east, the future revolution in Russia, and the outpost of democracy on 3 continents. (I try the positive geopolitics here, I don’t know, maybe it takes).
We can’t be that useless to let this country becoming a dictatorship of stupid…
There…
It is not “a girl” crying this time, it is me, I don’t know of what. Tears in my last glass of wine at the airport, of sadness or hope. Or both.
The sadness is immense, but the hope is infinite.
Damn rollercoaster…