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No Compromise on Elections Date ? Majority Leader

Currently there is not a single argument that may outweigh a decision to hold parliamentary elections in late 2008, Maia Nadiradze, the leader of parliamentary majority, said on October 23.


A group of ten opposition parties are pushing for parliamentary elections to be held in spring, 2008. Last December, Parliament passed amendments to the constitution, according to which simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections will be held sometime between October and December 2008. This amendment has prolonged the sitting Parliament?s term by at least six months and has also cut President Saakashvili?s first term in office by between three to six months.


Speaking in a live interview with Rustavi 2 TV late on October 23, Nadiradze said that the authorities were guided by the vital interests of the country in taking the decision last year and they had no intention to compromise now, at the expense of those unspecified interests.


?We have major goals ahead of us. We can not compromise on this issue [the date of the elections], not because it is important for us to stay in Parliament for a few more months, but because we are guided by the country?s interests. I can not divulge the details, because I do not want our enemies to know,? Nadiradze said, without further elaboration on the issue.


?Major goals? is ordinarily how officials refer to the restoration of the country?s territorial integrity.


During the debates in Parliament last December on the actual constitutional amendments, ruling party lawmakers mostly cited foreign factors for the need to hold simultaneous polls in late 2008.


Some parliamentarians from the ruling National Movement party have been more forthcoming, saying the amendment was introduced to avoid having Georgia?s parliamentary elections coincide with the presidential elections in Russia, which are scheduled for March 2008.


The supposed rationale was that there was ?a serious risk? that Russia could manipulate the Georgian elections, or even ?stage serious provocations? in Georgia for internal Russian consumption on the eve of its presidential elections.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)

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