Events Detail

  Baran, Sikharulidze, Kolbe, Wollack, and Fairbanks

THE GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS:
RESULTS and IMPLICATIONS

featuring

H.E. VASIL SIKHARULIDZE, Ambassador of Georgia to the United States

THE HONORABLE JIM KOLBE, Former Member of US House of Representatives

KENNETH WOLLACK, President of National Democratic Institute

CHARLES FAIRBANKS, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Moderated by

ZEYNO BARAN,
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

Last November, after days of massive public protests against his presidency, Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili announced that an early presidential election would be held on January 6, 2008. Saakashvili was reelected in the first round with around 53 percent of the vote, which corresponded to about 30 percent of the electorate. While many in the opposition claimed the elections were manipulated, the international community (except for Russia) declared that the elections "complied with basic international standards" and were "the most competitive in Georgia's history."

The opposition continues to deny Saakashvili's legitimacy and has contemplated a renewal of large-scale public protest. Meanwhile, Saakashvili—whose inauguration will take place January 20—has stated that he intends to reach out to the opposition and build a national consensus in order to tackle the myriad challenges that plague the country.

In order to discuss the results and ramifications of the presidential election in Georgia, the broader South Caucasus, and the United States, Hudson Institute's Center for Eurasian Policy hosted a distinguished group of panelists, several of whom were in Georgia during the elections.

H.E. Vasil Sikharulidze is the Ambassador of Georgia to the United States. Prior to his assignment in Washington, Ambassador Sikharulidze has served as First Deputy Minister of Defense responsible for policy and planning, as well as Undersecretary of the National Security Council of Georgia.

The Honorable Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) served in the US Congress from 1985 to 2007. Representative Kolbe served as Chair of the House Appropriation Committee's Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs. He recently returned from Georgia, where he led the IRI's election observation delegation.

Kenneth Wollack is the president of National Democratic Institute. He has been actively involved in foreign affairs, journalism, and politics since 1972. Mr. Wollack has traveled extensively throughout the world on behalf of NDI's political development programs. Mr. Wollack has also been active in American politics, serving on the national staff of the McGovern presidential campaign in 1972.

Charles H. Fairbanks is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. Previously, he worked as a research professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins/SAIS and as a director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. He has served as a deputy assistant secretary of the US Department of State and was a member of the department's policy planning staff. He was a foreign policy adviser to the Reagan campaign in 1980 and the Bush campaign in 1988.

For more information please contact Onur Sazak at onur@hudson.org