Saakashvili on Lifting of State of Emergency

President Saakashvili said on November 16 that his government was not composed of ?cowards? and it would always respect and secure the rule of law and maintain order in the country. He said  nationwide calm and peace would allow him to lift the state of emergency at 7pm on November 16.

The president was speaking at Tbilisi airport, prior to setting off for Batumi, in Adjara, where he is due to meet Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev. His comments were carried by the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

Below is a full transcript of Saakashvili?s statement:

As you know, eight days ago the Georgian government decided to impose a state of emergency, because there was unrest and violent actions, which risked getting out of hand.

There has been absolute calm and order in Georgia since then and life continues as normal. I want to express my gratitude to every citizen, to the entire Georgian population, which has shown amazing wisdom and restraint and demonstrated to the entire world that we are an organized, democratic and peaceful nation and state.

So the state of emergency will be lifted today. We are lifting all the restrictions on political activities, which, in any case, were nominal.

We are preparing for early presidential elections and a plebiscite to determine the date of parliamentary elections. I want to state that every political force, all political figures and activists, and every citizen will have the full freedom to practice their political rights, without any restrictions. We have special laws, which guarantee the opposition the right to use [TV] air time and to use media sources.

At the same time, we are inviting Europeans ? and we have already requested the European Union ? to send both short-term and long-term election observation missions, which will monitor media freedom and which, together with us, will participate in resolving all the legal disputes related with democratic processes in Georgia?s political life and also related with maintaining political processes in accordance with legal and European norms.

Our goal is to maintain calmness in Georgia and I think we have all seen ? and I want to stress this ? that the Georgian government will not step back when it comes to maintaining law and order and protecting the constitution and the rule of law.

We are not a cowardly government. We are a government for which the top priority is the rule of law and of course our country and peace, security and the protection of every citizen. So we are determined to maintain law and order in the future as well. We will secure the normal functioning of the state and a transparent and democratic political process accessible to all.

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