Opposition, Government Agree on Talks

The leaders of five opposition parties and the government have agreed to start talks later today.

The agreement was reached at a preliminary meeting on November 10 held in the headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Church and chaired by the patriarch, Ilia II.

Davit Usupashvili, leader of the Republican Party; Kakha Kukava, leader of the Conservative Party; Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia’s Way Party; Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights Party and Zurab Tkemaladze, the leader of the Industrialist Party participate in the meeting.

Nino Burjanadze, the parliamentary chairperson, and Mikheil Machavariani, the vice-speaker of Parliament, represented the government.

The opposition leaders said that the lifting of emergency rule and restrictions on the media would be their top priorities for the meeting.  

“This meeting did not actually involve negotiations,” Davit Usupashvili of the Republican Party said afterwards. “The Georgian Patriarch gave his blessing for the negotiations to be held later [today] in the parliament. We said that all major issues should be discussed at that meeting.” 

“It is the will of the Georgian people that negotiations take place, regardless of what happened on November 7 [the  break-up of a demonstration by riot police]. Dialogue is necessary,” Salome Zourabichvili of Georgia’s Way Party said.

“We made an important step towards the resumption of dialogue and we are grateful to the patriarch,” Nino Burjanadze, the parliamentary speaker, said.

She confirmed that the authorities were willing to consider three out of four opposition demands.

A ten-party opposition coalition (of which the New Rights and Industrialists were not affiliated), was pushing for four major demands: holding of parliamentary elections in spring, instead of late 2008; the release of, what they called, a political prisoner – a reference to Irakli Batiashvili; the change of the majoritarian MP election rule and allowing opposition parties to have representatives in the election administrations.

The authorities are against holding parliamentary elections in spring. However, President Saakashvili said he wanted to hold a plebiscite so that voters themselves decide when to hold them.

A plebiscite, according to the law, can be called personally by the president on an issue of major national importance. It is, however, non-binding.

Zurab Tkemaladze, the leader of the Industrialist Party, said in an interview with the daily Rezonansi, published on November 10, that the release of Irakli Batiashvili, who is serving a seven year prison term for “the intellectual support” of warlord Emzar Kvitsiani last summer, was “actually decided.” But, he said, the terms of his release were still to be worked out. “Batiashvili should be released in dignity,” Tkemaladze said.

The preliminary meeting between the authorities and the opposition has further significance in that it gives some idea of what the format of the planned negotiations will be. The five opposition parties present at the initial exchange are expected to take a pivotal role, with the remaining opposition parties being sidelined.