Shevardnadze: New Parliament will Be Convened

President Shevardnadze said today that the November 2 parliamentary elections were held with irregularities; however the new Parliament will be convened anyway.

President Shevardnadze held a news briefing in the Parliament building. He intends to attend the first session of the Parliament which is scheduled to start at 4 pm today. Meanwhile tens of thousands of protesters demand Shevardnadze’s resignation on the Freedom Square, just hounded meters away from the Parliament. 

“I am not afraid to say that the elections were held with violations. However, we have elected the new Parliament. The first session will be held today. Everybody, who wants to participate in the session, may come and attend the session. Those, who do not want to come, should know, that the first session will be held anyway,” Shevardnadze said in his address to the nation on November 22. 

He said, 1,909,000 voters cast ballot on November 2 elections, while 1,904,000 voters participated in the referendum on reduction of number of MPs. “The discrepancy between these two figures confirms that the fraud really took place,” Shevardnadze added. 

He said, Georgia enters a new legal space and all the disputable issues should be discussed by the courts. 

“If the Parliament works normally, we should raise the issue of holding new parliamentary elections in an electronic form, that will exclude ballot fraud,” Shevardnadze said. 

Commenting on the opposition’s mass protest rally in the center of Tbilisi, the President said that everyone has the right to arrive in the capital, adding that some came here voluntarily, some – by force.

He goes against the appeals regarding civil disobedience. “In which epoch do we live? Whose state is this? If this is your state, why do you make such statements? If you have a program, you may gather people; I will come too and listen to you. Let’s settle the problem together. Civil disobedience was not announced even during the civil war 10 years ago. I call on everybody to come to the Parliament and discuss all the issues here. We cannot admit new war,” President Shevardnadze said while addressing the opposition leaders. 

“Maybe I am guilty. Democracy is good but it seems I’ve done too much in this regard [to develop democracy]. I believe that if we have democracy, we should trust people. And I trusted them,” Shevardnadze said. 

“The new Parliament should be better than previous one. Over 100-200 draft laws remain unsolved. The old Parliament spent more time on quarrelling, instead of adopting the laws. Now, they should refuse to work this way. I have submitted many draft laws. Why did not they adopt the draft law regarding vote bribing?” the President wonders.

He said, unlike the old Parliament the new one should work everyday except weekends.