Opposition Pledges ‘Permanent Protests Rallies’

In contrast to earlier opposition demands for repeat presidential elections, speakers at a protest rally outside Parliament mostly concentrated on the need for free and fair parliamentary elections.

“A new November is starting today,” MP Levan Gachechiladze, leader of the eight-party coalition, told several thousand supporters at the rally. “We will not stop until we achieve our goal and our goal is to have free and fair parliamentary elections.”

He called on supporters to join the rally and said “a large-scale protest rally” was needed to make the authorities compromise. He said that he had been due to go to the Baltic states on March 10-15, but had canceled the trip “because I have to stand here, where my people stand.” “I want to apologize to the ambassadors of the Baltic states [in Georgia], because they did everything to organize my visit,” he said.

The number of protesters outside Parliament on March 9 was far less than at previous opposition rallies.

Gia Tortladze of the Movement for United Georgia Party, part of the eight-party coalition, focused in his address on Parliament’s recent controversial decision on the rule of electing majoritarian MPs. He told supporters that a second hearing on the issue was due on March 11. “So we need an especially large scale protest rally on March 11,” he said.

Koba Davitashvili, the leader of Party of People, also part of the coalition, said that “illegitimate President” Saakashvili’s call for cross-party consensus in the face of Russia’s decision to lift sanctions on Abkhazia, was just a PR stunt. “We condemn this outrageous Russian move. This outrageous decision, however, was encouraged by the Georgian authorities’ irresponsible policy, as it still refuses to withdraw from the CIS or to seek the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” he said.

Davitashvili also said the proposal on majoritarian elections – which failed to consider the five Abkhaz constituencies – was a step against Georgian territorial integrity. “First, annul this rule [on the election of majoritarian MPs]; then withdraw from the CIS and seek the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeepers, and then call on us to cooperate,” Davitashvili said.

The New Rights Party has also joined the rally. MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the party, told the rally: “Our party has always been in favor of dialogue [with the authorities], but I have to admit that Saakashvili, Burjanadze and the entire government has become blinded by a desire to retain power. We have no way other than peaceful protest rallies, so we have joined the demands put forth by the National Council [the governing body of the eight-party coalition].”

He acknowledged that many within the opposition had been unhappy with a perceived lack of opposition radicalism and the failure to appropriately pressurize authorities after what he called the fraudulent January 5 presidential election. “But please believe me that thanks to the opposition and the National Council in particular, it was possible to prevent developments similar to those that happened in Yerevan,” MP Gamkrelidze said.

“Saakashvili and Burjanadze have calculated that the opposition protest has lost momentum and they think they can again steal the elections to remain in power. But we are saying: No, we will not let it happen. We should stand here until we achieve free and fair parliamentary elections,” Gamkrelidze added.

Leaders from the opposition Republican Party did not participate in the protest. The Labor Party had announced earlier that it would not join the eight-party coalition’s protest rallies.

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