Key Ruling Party MP Rules Out Compromise

Giga Bokeria, an influential lawmaker from the ruling party, ruled out any compromise with the opposition as long as their hunger strike continues.

In an interview with the Georgian weekly Kviris Palitra, published on March 24, he said that a decision on electing 75 majoritarian MPs in single-mandate constituencies “will not be revised.”

The opposition has demanded that 75 majoritarian MPs be elected in multi-mandate constituencies instead of single-mandate constituencies as a precondition for ending the hunger strike.

Doctors and opposition activists said the health of the hunger strikers had worsened over the weekend. There are currently 42 hunger strikers outside the parliament, according to figures posted on the opposition Conservative Party’s website. March 24 marks the sixteenth day in a hunger strike for five politicians from the eight-party coalition – three of whom are MPs. Others are on their fifteenth and fourteenth day of hunger strike. Six lawmakers from the New Rights Party camped just outside Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze’s office inside Parliament are on their fifteenth day (MP Irakli Iashvili joined his colleagues on March 13).

MP Gigi Tsereteli of the ruling party suggested on March 24 that the authorities would medically intervene if the hunger strikers continued.

MP Bokeria also said no agreement had ever been reached with the opposition on the composition of the election administrations. The opposition wants a parity basis, wherein the opposition and the authorities would have equal representation in the election commissions. “Such a scenario would have given the opposition the possibility of blocking decisions [of the election administrations]. That would have paralyzed the entire system,” he said.

He also said that Levan Tarkhnishvili, the chairman of the Central Election Commission, would retain his post because “no consensus” had been reached on a seccessor.

“Even talking about this issue is pointless because of the opposition’s unconstructive stance,” MP Bokeria said.