Telavi Municipality Tells Opposition to Move the Inauguration Protest

The Telavi Municipality has asked the United Opposition, a coalition of eleven political parties led by the United National Movement, to move their protest rally, scheduled during the inauguration of the President-elect, Salome Zurabishvili to an alternative location.

The inauguration is planned to take place in Telavi, on December 16. The United Opposition called its supporters to rally in protest so that the government “once again hears the voice of furious voters.”

Commenting on the issue, Telavi Mayor Shota Nareklishvili said that “since a lot of foreign delegations will be attending the inauguration, and the suggested area of the rally is where these delegations will be moving, we have offered the opposition an alternative place for their rally.”

The opposition has refused, with UNM’s political council member Giorgi Botkoveli saying the  opposition would hold the rally at the location they intended, and that it was not within the purview of the Telavi Municipality to decide upon this issue.

He then addressed the City Hall “to protect the right of peaceful citizens to express protest [in a rally] that will be entirely civilized.”

The United Opposition voiced its decision to hold a peaceful protest rally on December 12 after the government rejected their “compromising proposals” and “conclusions of international organizations and observers.”

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