Opposition Plans to Resume Protest Rallies

The eight-party opposition coalition said it would launch protest rallies from March 9 to demand repeat presidential elections.

The Republican Party, which has just quit the coalition, will participate, Tina Khidasheli of the Republican Party told the Georgian Public Broadcaster. The Labor Party said it would not. The New Rights opposition party said it had yet to decide. “The demand [for a re-run of the presidential election] in itself is acceptable, but our executive committee needs to discuss and decide on whether to join the rallies or not,” MP Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights Party told Civil.Ge.
 
The eight-party coalition demanded a re-run, citing the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission’s Final Report on the January 5 election.

“This [OSCE/ODIHR] statement is a huge victory of the Georgian people on the international arena,” Koba Davitashvili, leader of the Party of People, part of the eight-party coalition, said on March 5 at a news conference also attended by other leaders from the bloc. “From now on Mikheil Saakashvili is not a legitimate president in the eyes of the entire world. Now, another key demand is added to the coalition’s demands and it is repeat presidential elections.” 

The final OSCE/ODIHR report mainly reiterates earlier findings released in pre-election and post-election interim reports and adds that although election day and voting were generally assessed positively, the vote count and tabulation were evaluated “less positively.”

“A significant 23% of [vote] counts [out of a total of 180] observed by IEOM [International Election Observation Mission] observers were assessed as bad or very bad,” the report reads. “Some 35% of PECs [Precinct Election Commissions] did not perform various steps of the vote count in the prescribed order.”

Nino Burjanadze, the parliamentary chairperson, currently on a visit to Brussels, told Georgian journalists that street protests seemed to be an opposition goal in itself.

“I do not think that the processes will improve and normalize if the opposition raises demands and sets ultimatums on everything. The entire world has assessed the presidential election as normal and democratic, which was held in compliance with international standards, as well as OSCE standards,” she said. “I have seen this final report by the OSCE. There have been some critical remarks. A week or two ago I met with ODIHR director, Mr. [Christian] Strohal, who spoke about these remarks; but there has been nothing that would have questioned the final results of the presidential election.”

This is the second time this week that the opposition coalition has threatened to stage protests. With Parliament with its first hearing on March 4 approving a controversial proposal on electing majoritarian MPs, the opposition cried foul and called for protests, seeing the measure as a breech of an earlier agreement with the ruling party.

The latest call for renewed demonstrations comes less than two weeks after the opposition bloc called off a planned hunger strike and protest rally on February 22. MP Levan Gachechiladze, leader of the coalition, said at the time that moderation was required if talks with the authorities on key issues were to continue. The decision was strongly backed by the Republican Party – at the time part of the coalition – but was criticized by other members of the bloc. Since then a new board of the public TV has been appointed by agreement between the authorities and the opposition and some of those arrested in connection with the November 7 events have been released. The Conservative Party said on March 5 that one remaining detainee, arrested on trumped up weapons possession charges, according to the party, had sewn his lips together in protest at his continued detention.

Immediately following the January 5 presidential election, the then nine-member opposition coalition launched a series of mass protest rallies to demand a run-off, in which Gachechiladze would have faced Saakashvili. The Labor Party and New Rights supported the demand. Later, however, the opposition dropped the demand, concentrating instead on, what it called, creating conditions for genuinely free and fair parliamentary elections.