‘We Failed to Protect Votes’ – Opposition Leader

Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia’s Way Party, part of the nine-party opposition coalition, said the bloc had “failed to protect votes” in the January 5 presidential election.

Zourabichvili, who was Levan Gachechiladze’s running mate and Prime Minister-in-waiting if Gachechiladze had won, told the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) on January 16: “We have to admit that we have failed to protect votes. That is our big mistake; we were not able to do that.”

Zourabichvili’s remarks have been interpreted as a recognition by at least some within the opposition that opposition demands for a second presidential round have failed to produce results. The focus, so the thinking goes, should now be on the parliamentary elections. Zourabichvili, however, maintained that no decision had even been taken by the coalition on whether to contest the parliamentary elections. “It still remains undecided,” she said.