Opposition Coalition, Labor Party Reaffirm Boycott Plan

The eight-party opposition coalition and the Labor Party have reiterated they would boycott the new parliament and called for a large-scale protest rally to picket the legislative body on the day when its first session was convened.

“We call on entire Georgia, Tbilisi and regions to gather on the Rustaveli Avenue on the day of the first session of illegitimate parliament to organize a picket and not to let the illegal parliament convene its first session,” Levan Gachechiladze, the co-leader of the eight-party coalition, said at a news conference outside the parliament on May 30.

The press conference was attended by other leaders from the coalition, as well as Shalva Natelashvili, the leader of Labor Party.

“We do not recognize the legitimacy of the May 21 parliamentary elections, we refuse to take seats in the new parliament and demand the appointment of repeated parliamentary elections,” Natelashvili said. “We think that the only way out of the current situation is to exert pressure on the Georgian authorities through mass peaceful protest.”

The two parties have also called on the Christian-Democratic Party, which has also cleared the 5% threshold in the elections, to join the opposition’s protest and boycott the new parliament. The Christian-Democratic Party has not yet voiced its clear-cut position about the boycott.
 
The opposition coalition and the Labor Party have also called on the authorities to immediately announce the date of the first session of the newly elected parliament.

“I call on the authorities to stop playing bopeep and immediately announce the day of the first session so that we, the entire opposition manage to mobilize for this day,” Levan Gachechiladze said.

According to the law, the first session of the newly elected parliament should be convened not later than June 10, while the Central Election Commission should summarize the results of elections before June 8.

The opposition coalition and the Labor Party have also called on the international community “to have a proper reaction on the rigged elections in Georgia and to call on the authorities to annul the results of the May 21 elections.”

Koba Davitashvili, leader of Party of People – the part of the eight-party opposition coalition – said on May 29, that the opposition was considering blocking of the legislative body to prevent newly election MPs from the ruling party to go inside the building.

“I call on the people for rebellion against these authorities,” Davitashvili said while speaking at a late-night political talk show, Primetime, aired by Rustavi 2 TV. “We will block the parliament and will not let this illegal body to be convened.”

Salome Zourabichvili, the leader of Georgia’s Way Party – also part of the eight-party coalition – said in the same TV talk show that “this authoritarian regime” had left no other chance to the people except of rebellion.

She, however, also said: “I think that rebellion will not be possible, because people have no levers; we have nothing at all… The only thing we can do is to picket and block the parliament.”