The ongoing opposition protest took a twist on March 10, with six lawmakers from the New Rights Party joining an existing hunger strike.
However, while the five politicians from the eight-party opposition coalition are on hunger strike outside Parliament, the New Rights Party MPs are camped right outside the office of Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze inside the parliament.
The New Rights Party, usually against any radical form of protest, said the hunger strike was designed to force the government to concede to opposition demands outlined in the January 29 memorandum. New Rights Party leader Davit Gamkrelidze is among the six hunger strikers.
“We are launching a hunger strike in the parliamentary chairperson’s reception area,” MP Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights Party told reporters. “We want the authorities to meet the demands outlined in the opposition memorandum… to secure genuinely free and fair parliamentary elections. Unfortunately we have no other lever to influence the authorities, so the [New Rights parliamentary] faction, which has always been constructive and consistent in its policies, has decided to resort to this radical form of protest.”
Shortly before the statement was released, Gamkrelidze demanded that Burjanadze immediately hold “a public meeting” in the presence of journalists to discuss the issues outlined in the opposition memorandum.
Burjanadze’s office, however, said that because of her tight schedule she wouldn’t be available till 4pm that day.
MP Levan Gachechiladze, the eight-party opposition coalition leader, meanwhile, has welcomed the decision of the New Rights Party, saying it was “brave.”
“I am grateful to the New Rights Party for this very correct decision. It is necessary to achieve free and fair elections. Only free elections will help us to overcome the crisis,” MP Gachechiladze said.
Three lawmakers and two other opposition politicians from the eight-party coalition launched a hunger strike on March 9 outside Parliament and vowed to continue it until their demands were met. They have outlined three demands: repeat presidential elections; conditions conducive for free and fair parliamentary elections and the release of all those arrested in connection with the November 7 events.
MP Gachechiladze, however, indicated on March 10 that the hunger strike might be suspended if the authorities backdown on a controversial rule of electing 75 majoritarian MPs in the new 150-member parliament.
With the opposition seeing the proposal as damaging to their prospects in the forthcoming elections, it has assumed enormous political importance recently.
