27 May 2008: President Mikheil Saakashvili’s rightist-liberal United National Movement triumphed in Georgia’s parliamentary elections on May 21, taking 59.2% of the vote and crushing the hopes of a hitherto emboldened opposition.

Central Election Commission results show the nine-party United Opposition Council trailing far behind with around 17.7%, followed by the center-right Christian Democrats on 8.6% and center-left Labor Party with 7.4%. No other party succeeded in passing the five percent barrier required for proportionally allocated seats.

This is likely to translate into a massive majority for the president’s party, with the United National Movement on course for 120 seats in the 150 member parliament. 

The personality-driven United Opposition Council, an ideological hodgepodge that largely shares the president’s pro-western political platform, immediately accused Saakashvili of rigging the results. It has refused to take up its 16 parliament seats and is now calling for massive street protests. 

Unfortunately for the opposition, Georgians do not seem in much of a revolutionary mood. The United Opposition Council promised tens of thousands of protesters for a demonstration held the night of the election. In the event, only about 1000 bothered to show up.

Even so, the opposition has a point. Independent election monitors pointed out numerous irregularities, including voter intimidation, while still giving tepid blessings to the poll. Joao Soares, head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s election monitoring delegation, declared the election a substantial improvement over January’s disputed presidential poll but, “not perfect”. The Georgian Foreign Minister seemed to concur with this assessment, declaring the process imperfect, “no matter what ambitions (the government) had to make it as perfect as possible.”

Ekaterine Zguladze, the Deputy Interior Minister, expressed pride simply in having Georgian elections “held to Western European standards and not post-Soviet standards.” 

And that may be the point.

Georgia has come a long way since the bloodless Rose Revolution that brought the U.S.-educated Saakashivili to power in 2003. The nation’s economy, once a laggard, has advanced forcefully over the past five years. Saakashvili tapped one of Russia’s richest oligarchs, a self-described “ultra-liberal” named Kakha Bendukidze, to return to his native Georgia and serve as economics minister in 2004. Since then, Mr. Bendukidze’s call for Georgia to sell everything “but her conscience” has been headed mightily. The national economy has been privatized and liberalized to a massive degree. Radical economic reforms, including a 12 percent flat tax, have attracted historic levels of foreign investment and shocking amounts of global attention for tiny Georgia. 

A recent World Bank report named Georgia the world’s top economic reformer and its economy is on course to expand by almost nine percent this year. 

Fiercely pro-American, Mr. Saakashvili has also steered his nation’s focus ever westward. Georgia deployed troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan and the country has actively sought membership in NATO and the European Union. And, though small, Georgia has immense strategic importance to the West as a buffer against Russia and a bridge between Europe, Asia, and the Islamic world. 

Saakashvili’s often heavy-handed government is also considered a vast improvement over the endemically corrupt administration he ousted in 2003. With Russia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, Georgia is undoubtedly the most liberal and democratic nation in the region. Furthermore, its pro-western orientation and regional importance are bound to ensure the United States and European Union forgive the president a few instances of election mischief, despite their reservations.

After all, Mr. Saakashvili enjoys genuine popular support and a fairer election is likely to have only produced a slimmer majority for the United National Movement.

President Saakashvili will no doubt interpret the results—the official results—as a mandate to continue his radical economic policies and pro-western foreign policy agenda.  The West, at least, seems prepared to give Mikheil another go at the wheel.