Opposition Selects Negotiators

A ten-party opposition bloc has given five politicians plenipotentiary rights to engage in dialogue with President Saakashvili.

Leader of Freedom Party Konstantine Gamsakhurdia; lawmaker Koka Guntsadze from the Movement for United Georgia; Tina Khidasheli from the Republican Party; leader of Party of People Koba Davitashvili,  and independent lawmaker Levan Gachechiladze have been selected.

?We want the president to meet these five people who will talk on behalf of the National Council of Unified Public Movement [a union of ten opposition parties],? Tina Khidasheli told the RFE/RL Georgian service on October 18. ?And we want this meeting with the president to be public and not behind closed doors.?

In a letter sent to President Saakashvili and Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze, opposition politicians outlined four major demands which they think should top the agenda of talks:

? Holding of parliamentary elections in spring 2008;
? Creation of new election administrations with representatives from political parties;
? Change of the current majoritarian election system ? a first-past-the-post, ?winner takes all? system;
? Release of ?political prisoners? and ?prisoners of conscience.?

Leader of parliamentary majority Maia Nadiradze responded on October 18, saying that changes to the composition of the Central Election Commission were ?absolutely ruled out.?

Giga Bokeria, an influential lawmaker from the ruling party, said on October 17 that the ruling party and the president were prepared to engage in dialogue but the form proposed by the opposition parties was unhelpful. 

Meanwhile, the ten opposition parties, campaigning jointly for early parliamentary polls, are continuing preparations for a planned protest rally outside Parliament on November 2.

On October 18 a meeting with a group of teachers is planned in Tbilisi, to be followed by a series of meetings with doctors and veterans of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts in the early 1990s.

On October 19 a visit to Kutaisi, Georgia?s second largest city, is planned. Opposition leaders will then travel to Adjara, Guria and Samegrelo regions in western Georgia.

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