Democracy still a work in progress in Stalin's home town

May 22, 2008, 8:09 GMT

A Georgian local election commission official (R) checks up a voter\'s hand on traces of indelible ink, visible only under ultra-violet light, during parliamentary elections at a polling station in Tbilisi, Georgia, 21 May 2008. Georgian people elect 150 deputies among three electoral blocs and nine parties. EPA/ZURAB KURTSIKIDZE

Gori/Tbilisi, Georgia - Georgian participatory democracy was just a tiny bit creepy Wednesday in Gori, the home town of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The process of electing a new provincial parliament in Gori, an hour's drive from the polished capital Tbilisi, was certainly not a throwback to the days of single-party candidate slates and 100-per- cent participation or else.

But residents of Gori - where Stalin was born as Josef Djugashvili - went about exercising the 'European values, conventions, laws and mores' promoted by Georgia's US-educated President Mikhail Saakashvili in a method that was probably not the way Jefferson and Madison intended.

Irakli Talakhaladze, for instance, identified himself to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter as a 'Saakashvili activist,' and was quite open about issuing instructions by mobile telephone to relatives and neighbours on which party they should vote for and when they should get to the polls.

'What are you talking about? Of course you should vote today, and of course you should vote for (the Saakashvili-led) party number 5!' Talakhaladze barked at a hapless listener. 'It is your patriotic duty!'

Gori is a town of some 80,000 residents.

In Gori, population 80,000, most of the buildings are Soviet-era, its roads are generally poorly kept, and every citizen interviewed by dpa in the town claimed that unemployment was so high, even able- bodied men are unable to find regular work.

At a kindergarten not far from the tree-lined main street, Mirav Tsavilidze was presiding over Polling Station 15, including nearly two dozen election officials and vote observers, almost all young women.

'Everything is going perfectly smoothly,' Tsavilidze beamed. 'Everything is quiet here. Gori, as you know, is famous for its calm.'

Four rather tough-looking young men were squatting outside Polling Station 15. They declined to explain why they had selected the doorway of a city district voting site to hang out. Contrary to the hospitality of most Georgians, who by tradition give a stranger whatever he asks, emphatically did not want to be photographed.

On Gori's gravel streets under a clear sky on hot midday, pedestrian traffic was sparse. One of the few people out was Sabrina Marakashadze, 66, who was on her way from voting to shop for vegetables at Gori's central market.

'Oh, those people in Tbilisi, they take all the money and don't leave much for the simple people,' she said. 'I have a pension of 50 lari (35 dollars), and who can live on that? ... I just hope that these elections bring something better, but I am not too hopeful.'

Stalin was a son of the city 'who did some good, but much bad, more than most leaders,' she said.

At Polling Station 10, inside a middle school, local election commission Chairman Ketevan Shatakashvili, in contrast with the gregariousness of typical Georgian officials, was quite nervous answering questions from a reporter about the way the vote was going.

'Everything is going fine. Everything is under control,' she explained. 'I think we will have a good turnout.'

She predicted a strong turnout on Wednesday, though as of 2 pm it was by her own admission well off the pace of the last elections in January.

In peculiar contrast to most sleepy Georgian towns, which are usually empty of police, a surprising number of armed men had collected Wednesday in the centre of Gori, particularly near Polling Station 10.

Three police officers hid in a maroon BMW shortly after a pair of reporters showed up. Four more security troopers, one carrying a Kalashnikov, were relaxing in a Zhiguli around the corner. Even overlooking the town, on a hill topped by the Goris-Tsikhe fortress, a pair of police officers with automatic rifles manned an observation point.

'All the people that went to Tbilisi to work for Saakashvili, they're now all millionaires,' said Nudari Belianidze, a retired engineer. 'And now you want me to believe that people like that are going to give up their rich lives because of an election? You tell me if that makes sense. Like Djugashvili said, 'It's not how many votes you have. It's how you count the votes.'

At the end of the voting day, despite the mistrust of more than a few Gori citizens like Belianidze, no major election violations were reported.