The day before a planned opposition protest rally, President Saakashvili called for unity in the face of external threats.
President Saakashvili called on the opposition on March 8 to cooperate with the authorities, and with him personally too, in light of “the provocative and dangerous” decision by Russia to pull out from the 1996 CIS treaty imposing sanctions on Abkhazia.
“This is a moment when all other matters should be put aside,” he said in a live televised address. “I want to tell the opposition – we can dispute many issues… but there are issues on which it is impossible not to agree. I want to call on them to sit down with me, with the Georgian government, and develop a joint response, a joint position in response to this provocative, dangerous act of Russia’s.”
All main opposition parties, however, refuse to recognise Saakashvili as the legitimate president because of, what they call, the fraudulent January 5 presidential election, and accordingly refuse to cooperate with him. Instead, they have negotiated with Nino Burjanadze, the parliamentary chairperson.
On March 5 the eight-party opposition coalition called for the resumption of street protest rallies. Citing the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission’s Final Report on the January 5 election, they are demanding a repeat presidential election. They also want demands outlined in their January 29 memorandum to be met by the authorities.
The Republican Party, which recently quit the coalition, said it would participate in the rally. It, however, said it was against holding a repeat parliamentary election, as it was a distraction from what should be the the opposition’s main demand and goal – free and fair parliamentary elections. This, the party said, would allow the opposition, having won a parliamentary majority, to abolish the presidency. “We will join the planned protest rally because free and fair parliamentary elections will also be pushed for at that rally,” Tina Khidasheli of the Republican Party told Civil.Ge.
The New Rights Party said on Saturday that it was still undecided on whether to participate, while the Labor Party said it would not.
The March 9 protest rally is seen as a key test for the eight-party opposition coalition. Its decision to call off a planned hunger strike and protest rally on February 22 – which angered many within the bloc – and the Republican Party’s withdrawal from the bloc are seen to have weakened the opposition. Sunday’s rally will show to what extent this is true.
Irakli Okruashvili, a former defense minister, whose party Movement for United Georgia is part of the coalition, criticized the opposition last week for what he called its failure to capitalize on popular radicalism and for a loss of momentum in pressurizing the authorities.
“The mood among the people required radical and tough actions from the opposition. They [the opposition] have failed to notice that. Naturally there are signs of frustration [among opposition supporters] and the opposition should now respond to this somehow,” he said in an interview with Tbilisi-based Kavkasia TV. The interview was recorded four days before the coalition announcement of a renewal of protests.
