Tit-for-Tat Accusations Prevail after Patriarch’s Failed Mediation

After the failure to make a breakthrough in the current political impasse, both the opposition and the authorities are now blaming each other for, what they call, a failure to heed the Patriarch’s appeal.

Conscious that the Georgian Orthodox Church’s enjoys high public approval, both sides are obviously trying to discredit each other by leveling such accusations.

On March 20 Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, called on the opposition to end the hunger strike and told the ruling party to take steps to defuse tension.

On the same day the opposition has refused to end its hunger strike without the ruling party’s concessions, while the ruling party for its part has refused to even consider opposition demand unless it first called off the hunger strike.

Gigi Ugulava, Tbilisi’s Mayor and a close ally of President Saakashvili’s, reemerged after keeping a low profile recently and weighed into the debate on March 21, saying that the opposition’s refusal to call off the hunger strike amounted to disrespect towards the Patriarch.

“What we saw yesterday [the refusal of the opposition to end the hunger strike after the Patriarch’s appeal] is a rather dangerous tendency,” Ugulava said. “We witnessed the Patriarch’s call for an end to the hunger strike, but in response they [the opposition] pushed their political demands and in fact set an ultimatum to the Patriarch, which is a very dangerous tendency. It indicates that our opponents are artificially aggravating and radicalizing the situation.”

Nino Burjanadze, the parliamentary chairperson, made similar remarks late on March 20 and again on March 21. She also said that the authorities would resume talks only if the opposition called off the hunger strike.

In response, the opposition on March 21 alleged that Burjanadze on March 20 had refused to meet the Patriarch. MP Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights Party, who was among five opposition politicians who met with the Patriarch, said that Ilia II had invited Burjanadze to his residence for consultations on the opposition proposal, but she had refused.

“The Patriarch tried to convince her that the opposition had already compromised and now it was their [the authorities] turn,” MP Chikhradze told reporters on March 21.

The eight-party opposition coalition and the New Rights Party said after meeting with the Patriarch on March 20 that they would end the hunger strike if the authorities agreed to its “compromise proposal” on electing majoritarian MPs. The proposal envisaged electing 75 majoritarian MPs based on the so-called ‘regional proportional lists’ system – something which is strongly opposed by the ruling party. The latter will be much better positioned to gain more seats with the single-mandate majoritarian election system.

Koba Davitashvili, leader of the Party of People, part of the eight-party coalition, reiterated on March 21 that the opposition’s recent proposal was “a significant compromise” because the opposition was no longer pushing for its previous four demands as a precondition for calling off the hunger strike.

“We started our hunger strike with four demands and now there is only one demand, as a precondition for ending the hunger strike,” Davitashvili said.

On March 9 when the eight-party coalition went on hunger strike it demanded: 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. Davitashvili said that if their demand on the rule of electing 75 majoritarian MPs through so called ‘regional proportional system’ was met, the opposition was ready to resume talks on other election-related issues with the authorities.

He also called on the Labor Party and the Republican Party to back this single demand. The Labor Party, however, responded that the opposition should unconditionally end the hunger strike following the Patriarch’s call.

The Republicans’ responded that they in fact agreed with the demand, because it was somewhat similar to their own earlier proposal. The Republicans proposed on March 18 to elect 75 majoritarian MPs in multi-mandate constituencies, instead of single-mandate constituencies. Voters, according to this proposal, would vote in multi-mandate constituencies for as many candidates as there are seats in a given constituency.
 
Electing majoritarian MPs through so called ‘regional proportional lists’ allows parties or election blocs to nominate several candidates in each constituency (the number of seats available would depend on the size of the constituency). Seventy five majoritarian seats in the parliament, with this system, would be allocated proportionally, based on the votes received by parties in a particular constituency. The system entails setting an election threshold and would preclude independent candidates, as all candidates must be nominated by a party or an election bloc.

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