Ruling Party MP: No Compromise on Elections Date

Decision to hold elections in late 2008, instead of April was related with the country?s national interests and it can not be changed, Irina Kurdadze, a lawmaker from the ruling party, told reporters on November 4.

MP Kurdadze heads parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze?s administration and she usually speaks on behalf of the speaker.

She then again reiterated the ruling party leaders? position that the decision to hold elections in late 2008 was related with foreign factors.

Authorities claim that they want 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.

?We all know that the launch of both wars in Chechnya have coincided with elections in Russia, so we should be very cautious about it,? MP Kurdadze said.

She also reiterated that the ruling party was ready to launch talks with the opposition over those demands which were, as she put it, ?logical? and which were not against the country?s national interests, including on the election code.

MP Kurdadze also brushed off a statement by another lawmaker from the ruling majority, Guguli Magradze, made earlier on November 4. She said that the opposition?s demand to hold elections in April was ?legally and morally? justified.

?We have decided to hold elections in late 2008 long ago [last December] and if she wanted to say something she should have voiced her position before taking this decision,? MP Kurdadze said.

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