Agenda of Political Debate Changes in Government’s Favor

Authorities downplayed opposition’s the protest rally.

Legislators from the ruling National Movement party passed, with its third and final reading on July 1, a new rule for electing the City Council of Tbilisi and its Mayor without encountering even minor debates from opposition parliamentarians, as they were instead addressing their supporters in a downtown park, protesting against what they called “the government’s violence,” which they feel was expressed when a rally on Rustaveli Avenue  was dispersed overnight on June 30-July 1.

Five opposition parties – the New Rights, Republicans, Conservatives, National-Democratic Party and the Labor Party – could assemble several hundred people on July 1 to demand the resignation of Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, because of the “excessive use of force” that was wielded against protesters, who were demanding the release of two Georgian athletes suspected of blackmail.