Opposition Meets Senior U.S., OSCE Officials

Opposition leaders held separate meetings with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Daniel Fried, and OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut in Tbilisi on November 1.

Both officials are visiting Tbilisi to participate in a government-organized international conference, which coincides with the planned opposition-organized protest rally in Tbilisi on November 2. Holding of parliamentary elections in April, instead of late 2008, is the major demand of the opposition.

?The only way to defuse the current tension is a dialogue between the authorities and the opposition. Naturally, the U.S. government can help to foster this dialogue,? MP Kakha Kukava of the Conservative Party said following the talks.

?People [protesters on November 2] will not disperse unless the democratic elections are appointed in spring,? he added.
 
Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia?s Way, said that during the meeting with the U.S. senior official, the opposition leaders stressed ?how moderate and responsible the population is, which plans to participate in the November 2 rally.?

?They better understand the current critical situation in Georgia than the authorities,? Davit Zurabishvili of the Republican Party said after meeting with the OSCE Secretary General, ?the fact that the international society shows such a huge interest in the opposition, means that the opposition is an important force.?
 
Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights Party, also attended the meeting with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State. His party is not part of the ten-party opposition coalition which organizes the November 2 protest rally, however, the New Rights Party shares the demand to hold elections in April, instead of late 2008.

?Dialogue [with the authorities] should concern change of the election date, improvement of the election legislation,? MP Gamkrelidze said.