Jeanne Shaheen, a member of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, holds that Georgia is of the countries where an internal struggle between democracy and autocracy is underway. She touched on the subject on April 26th committee session, during the hearing of the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power.
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“It is very clear that the people of Georgia are facing westward, towards Europe; they want a democracy. Senator Rish and I were there in 2012 to observe the election when Georgian Dream took over and what we have seen is the government of Georgia move increasingly towards autocracy,” said Shaheen.
The Senator called the closing 2024 parliamentary elections a “defining opportunity” and said that the United States will have a critical role in supporting these elections. She asked Samantha Power whether and to what capacity USAID is proposing to be engaged in a long-term election observation mission to support Georgia.
“I don’t have the specifics yet of what that program is going to look like but I wholeheartedly agree with you that the attacks on civil society and some of the laws that have been introduced have been extremely troubling. On the other hand, the pushback shows the strength of civil society and the citizen power in Georgia to chart its own course or to fulfill its own democratic aspirations. To your point, I think we broadly need to be targeting resources toward election integrity, knowing that this is the next real opportunity for the citizens to be heard from and I think in all likelihood we will include short-term observation and long-term at the same time,” replied Senator Power.
Senator Shaheen also emphasized that the Foreign Relations Committee will support this initiative and expressed hope that should USAID require additional funding for fueling the long-term mission, it will be made available.
Georgian Dream representatives strongly disagree with the US senator’s assessments and state that she is not well-initiated in the ongoing processes in Georgia. The Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Parliament, Mikheil Sarjveladze, declared that today, Georgia is a democratic country like never before.
Senator Shaheen was last in Georgia in February when she met with Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, President Salome Zurabishvili, and representatives of the civil society and opposition parties. She spoke about the importance of the 2024 parliamentary elections during her stay in Tbilisi, as well.
