Republican Party Statement on Running Independently in Polls

Statement was read out by Davit Usupashvili, the Republican Party leader, at a press conference on February 29:

“The stage of post-communism, authoritarian-style of governance in Georgia should end with the upcoming parliamentary elections this May. It would be a logical result of the November, 2007 events. For this purpose, it is necessary that the key opposition forces achieve a victory in the parliamentary elections and gain a strong majority in the Parliament. The society demands that the opposition to be united to achieve a final victory.

Under conditions of the proportional election system, the opposition will secure more votes through broad front, rather than it runs on joint ticket. Independently running Republican Party will significantly contribute to our common goal and we are ready to perform this role worthily.

In order to fulfill our common goal, it is necessary to create such a model of opposition’s unity, which will secure coordinated activities of key opposition groups both before and after the elections. This issue is especially important since much is still to be done to create relevant preconditions for holding free and fair elections. Therefore, we are ready to cooperate with the parties, uniting in the National Council [the nine-party opposition coalition, which after this announcement of the Republican Party, will be eight-party coalition], as well as the opposition New Rights and the Labor Party, possibly with other parties as well, through wide-scale consultations in order to provide the creation of a unified opposition front.

The parliamentary elections should not only provide the replacement of the present authorities, but it should also define who will be responsible and on what level for Georgia’s future.

We should enable the Georgian people to solve these two tasks together. Hence, the people should be able to vote for any opposition group and by this to promote the replacement of the present authorities. At the same time, the people should be able to vote for desirable opposition party or election bloc and by doing so to define what kind of future Georgia will have and how we will live in future.

Based of these circumstances, the Republican Party decided to run independently during the forthcoming parliamentary elections.”