General elections were held in Georgia on 11 October 1992, in which voters elected both the Parliament and the Chairman of Parliament,Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I, p382 who also acted as Head of State as the President, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was in exile after being ousted in a coup in January. Independent candidate Eduard Shevardnadze was the only candidate in the election for Head of State, whilst the Peace Bloc won the most seats in Parliament. Voter turnout was 74.2%.
The election took place during the War in Abkhazia. It coincided with the heightened tensions following the capture of Gagra by the Abkhaz separatists and their North Caucasian Muslim allies, which resulted in a massacre of the local Georgian population. Gagra and Gudauta districts had been occupied by the Abkhaz separatists and did not vote, although the elections did take place in the rest of Abkhazia's districts, which were controlled by the government of Georgia: Sukhumi, Ochamchire, and Gulripshi districts. Another separatist region, South Ossetia, also did not participate in the election.
It was the first election since the 1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état. Violently deposed first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his allies described the elections as unconstitutional and boycotted it. The elections failed to be held in some districts of Mingrelia which were controlled by the Gamsakhurdia loyalists.
Background The conflict between the government and the opposition in 1991 escalated into the military confrontation in Georgia and the 1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état, which resulted in first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia being ousted from the power by the rebel units of the National Guard of Georgia and a group of paramilitary organizations. By January 1992, Gamsakhurdia was isolated in the parliament building and on 6 January, he was forced to flee Georgia. The power was assumed by the opposition Military Council, which was composed of Gamsakhurdia's former PM Tengiz Sigua, the commander of the National Guard Tengiz Kitovani and the leader of the paramilitary group Mkhedrioni Jaba Ioseliani. The Military Council invited former Georgian SSR leader and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze from Moscow to lead the country, and in March 1992 handed over its power to the State Council, which was composed of almost all political parties opposed to Gamsakhurdia. Shevardnadze became the chair of this council.
The situation in the country, however, failed to be stabilized and developed into the civil war. With the South Ossetia war ongoing, the tense political situation in another volatile region, Abkhazia, also escalated to the war in August 1992. In both cases, the separatists were assisted by the Russian (former Soviet) military units stationed in these regions. Although Georgia declared its independence in April 1991, the country still failed to become a member of the United Nations or any other international community.
In this situation, the members of the State Council launched the preparations for the elections in an attempt to justify their power through the democratic legitimacy before the domestic and international actors. Moreover, the council's restoration of Georgia's pre-Soviet 1921 constitution provided for the legislature to exercise the powers of the main branch of the government.
Electoral system Following the 1991–1992 Georgian coup d'état, the provisional State Council, which exercised only weak authority, initially passed the electoral law adopting the single transferable vote with no electoral threshold in March 1992, hoping for a parliament with a broad representation to leave only supporters of former president, which refused to participate in the election, as a street opposition. However, as the State Council consolidated its power, it modified the electoral system on 1 August, thus making 150 seats to be elected through a regional party lists, while the 84 seats would be elected through the single-mandate constituencies. The majoritarian candidate required a majority of the votes to be elected through his constituency, while the other 150 seats were distributed among 10 multi-member districts, ranging from 5 to 24 seats for each district. The threshold was at least 2% for each district and the voters were entitled to select three parties with the desired sequence.
In addition to the parliament, the voters also elected the Chairman of the Parliament according to the election law. The chairman was also granted the title of the Head of State.
Participants 36 electoral subjects were registered for the election, including 4 blocs. Each subject received no less than 100 000 maneti from the state to finance the electoral campaign.
There were several blocs which supported Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Georgian SSR leader who was now in charge of the country again after being invited by the Military Council in March 1992. The most notable was the Peace Bloc, which mainly consisted of famous intellectuals and former Soviet nomenklatura. Several parties were in this bloc: the Democratic Union, the Union for Revival, the Agrarian Union, the Georgian League for Economic and Social Progress, the Justice Party, the Svaneti-based Lemi organization and the Monarchist-Conservative Party. The former Soviet functionaries were represented by the Democratic Union, whose chairman, Avtandil Margiani, was the last chairman of the Georgian Communist Party, before it was outlawed by Gamsakhurdia in 1991, a decision retained by the Military Council. Shevardnadze initially decided to join the Peace Bloc, but renegaded after other pro-Shevardnadze blocs complained that this would give the Peace Bloc an undue advantage. Instead, on 31 August 1992 Shevardnadze announced his candidacy to the chairmanship of the parliament, becoming the sole candidate for this position.
Another major pro-Shevardnadze bloc was the Unity Bloc, which united the Liberal-Democratic National Party and the Party of Peace and Freedom. It consisted of figures from liberal intelligentsia and cultural sphere.
Other blocs also took part in the election. For example, the 11 October bloc, which united the Republican Party, DAS-i, People's Front and Christian Democratic Union. They consisted mostly of the young members of intelligentsia. The parties making up the bloc were in opposition to both the Communist Party and later the Gamsakhurdia government.
Many parties stood individually, like Gia Chaturia's National Democratic Party, Irakli Tsereteli's National Independence Party, Zurab Zhvania's Green Party, Ilia Chavchavadze Society and the Democratic Party. The Socialist Workers' Party was composed of the former Communist Party members who retained the hard-line communist ideology. There were some parties which broke away from Gamsakhurdia's Round Table—Free Georgia coalition: Akaki Asatiani's Union of Georgian Traditionalists, Tedo Paatashvili's Charter 91, and the Merab Kostava Society. However, the groups supporting Gamsakhurdia by large boycotted the election.
Conduct The international observers mostly described the conduct of the election as free and fair. However, the elections failed to be held in all districts, and consequently the elections were suspended and postponed in nine single-mandate consequences: Java, Tskhinvali, Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Chkhorotsku, Gagra, Gali, Gudauta, and Tkvarcheli. These districts were either controlled by the separatist regime of South Ossetia, Abkhaz rebels or Gamsakhurdia loyalists.
Results Head of State
Parliament
Aftermath At least 24 blocs or parties gained the seats in the parliament. In total, this meant that 47 parties had representation in the parliament. Thus, the parliament was extremely multi-party, however, most parties had actually no social base and remained the narrow cliques united around some individuals. The Peace Bloc, the 11 October Bloc, the National Democratic Party and the Unity Bloc emerged as the leading parties.
The former Communist Party functionaries re-emerged in the political arena through the Peace and Unity blocs, also, many local officials, managers of large industrial complexes and collective farms were elected to the parliament through single-mandate districts. Tengiz Sigua, Tengiz Kitovani and Jaba Ioseliani were also elected to the parliament as independents.
The parliament was understood to be provisional and was elected to serve only for three years before drafting a new constitution for the country.
On 6 November 1992, the new parliament passed the Law on State Power, which made Eduard Shevardnadze the Head of State. Thus, he became the head of the legislature and the executive at the same time. He was granted the right to appoint the Cabinet of Ministers, which he did so by appointing Tengiz Sigua as the Prime Minister after the parliamentary approval. Shevardnadze presented the "balanced cabinet" consisting of former Communist Party officials as well as non-Communists from the national liberation movement. This included Irakli Batiashvili, a delegate to the National Congress and Roman Gotsiridze, a member of the People's Front. The cabinet also included the paramilitary leaders, such as Tengiz Kitovani as the Defence Minister and Mkhedrioni member Temur Khachishvili as the Interior Minister.
Both cabinet and the parliament proved largely ineffective, because no party or coalition managed to secure majority in the parliament. In addition to the parliament being too fragmentated, the Peace and Unity blocs also broke apart soon after the election. This was coupled with the lack of professionalism, apathy and absenteeism. The divided cabinet, too, was marred by the conflicts over economic policy between "economic reformists" and their opponents. In August 1993, the cabinet resigned after the parliament rejected its draft budget twice. The deputies rejected Shevardnadze's next choice, Zurab Kervalishvili, after which they approved his next nomination, Otar Patsatsia, on 20 August. The second cabinet was also a "balanced" one, but the main "reformist" Roman Gotsiridze was replaced by Irina Sarishvili of the National Democratic Party as the Deputy Prime Minister. Shevardnadze also replaced Khachishvili by his loyalist Shota Kviraia, a former KGB General, which has been described as a setback for the paramilitaries.