Source: Civil.Ge
Opposition reinvigorated its drive on Monday by creating an additional focal point of protest in Tbilisi outside the presidential residence.
Up to thirty tents were set up outside the residence in the Avlabari district as part of what the opposition says will be a permanent, round-the-clock rally. Simultaneously, opposition activists are keeping vigil for the fifth night outside the Parliament.
Couple of hundred of opposition activists were gathered outside the presidential residence by midnight with some of them blowing whistles and chanting anti-Saakashvili slogans.
Riot police units, deployed inside the presidential residence yard, were watching calmly at protesters through the fence dividing the residence from a relatively narrow street where opposition activists are camped.
Some of opposition leaders were also there, including Levan Gachechiladze; Irakli Alasania, leader of Alliance for Georgia; Nino Burjanadze, leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia; Kakha Kukava, co-leader of Conservative Party and Koba Davitashvili, leader of Party of People.
“We will put more tents in other places as well,” Levan Gachechiladze said after personally installing one of the tents earlier on April 13.
“This is a peaceful expression of the citizens’ will,” Irakli Alasania, leader of opposition Alliance for Georgia, who was also there, said.
Nino Burjanadze, the leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia, said she hoped the President would “hear people’s demand from here.”
Monday marked launch of what the opposition called “new wave” protests.
Thousands of people were gathered outside the Parliament. Turnout at the rally was much higher than over the weekend, however, fell short of numbers that were observed during the first day of the rallies on April 9.
Meanwhile, Davit Bakradze, the parliamentary chairman, told reporters after meeting with a group of civil society representatives and political analysts, including those who are the authorities’ critics, that the authorities could consider possibility of a coalition government.
He, however, also said that the coalition government required “confidence between the political forces and a normal political dialogue.”
Mamuka Katsitadze of the New Rights Party, part of Alliance for Georgia, said that the opposition was not even considering such option.
And Eka Beselia of the Movement for United Georgia, a party founded by ex-defense minister, Irakli Okruashvili, told protesters outside the Parliament: “No posts, not taking seats in the government; the demand about resignation of Saakashvili has no alternative.
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