Opposition Coalition Steps Up Anti-Saakashvili Rhetoric

The nine-party opposition bloc, running in the May 21 parliamentary elections on the joint ticket, has warned the authorities that “people”s rebellion” would be inevitable if the polls are rigged.

“Today we are launching a struggle to win a victory in the parliamentary elections which amount to a second round of the January 5 election, which has been stolen by [President] Saakashvili,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Rights Party, said on April 7. “The Georgian people will have a right for rebellion if the May 21 parliamentary elections are rigged. I will do my best to put an end to the Saakashvili”s bloody regime through peaceful means.”

Gamkrelidze was speaking in a late-night political talk show, Primetime, aired by Rustavi 2 TV. The talk show, which lasted over two hours and dedicated its full airtime to presenting of the newly set up bloc with the New Rights in it, was used by the opposition leaders to step-up radical rhetoric against the authorities. MP Gamkrelidze, who has always boasted with his moderate and constructive credentials, said: “My constructive approach ended on January 5 when the Saakashvili”s regime rigged the ballot.”

MP Zviad Dzidziguri said in the same TV talk show that in case of ballot-rigging “the government should know that we are considering seriously a scenario of people”s rebellion from May 22.” “This has nothing to do with weapons or use of force; when the authorities with the help of chairs of election administrations, like [CEC chair Levan] Tarkhnishvili, with the help of police, security agents, ministers, governors are rigging elections, the people have the right to kick this kind of officials out of their offices,” he added.
 
“We live in the country which is ruled by serious terrorists,” MP Levan Gachechiladze, who leads the bloc”s list of MP candidates (MP Gamkrelidze is the second in the list) said in the same TV talk show. “And everyone in the country should spare no efforts to get rid of the Saakashvili”s bloody regime.”

Gachechiladze, who himself wears business suit and neckties extremely rarely, also said: “We should grab them into their ties and kick them out of their offices. Should [Levan] Tarkhnishvili with his big tie sit in his office [of chairmanship of the Central Election Commission]? He should be sitting in jail; in jail.”

Koba Davitashvili, the leader of Party of People, compared the bloc to “anti-Nazi coalition,” wherein parties of various ideologies were united around the goal “to get rid of the Saakashvili”s regime” which he compared to Hitler.

“Our coalition is anti-Nazi coalition,” Davitashvili said in the TV talk show. “It is not a time for disputing on party ideology it is time for unity now. The May 21 election is not an ordinary election, it is more a referendum: do we want or not the Saakashvili tyrant regime… We should force Hitler – Saakashvili – to go.” When asked “wasn”t Saakashvili a “Hitler”” at the time when Davitashvili was his ally during the 2003 Rose Revolution, he responded: “He was not Hitler at that time, he became Hitler later.”

MP Kakha Kukava of the Conservative Party also part of the bloc said: “We consider Saakashvili as a criminal and we will deal with him through only one way, wherein we will be his prosecutors and he – a criminal; so he will have to defend himself in an independent court.”

During the talk show, an anchor Inga Grigolia was making a focus on differences which the parties – now running on the joint ticket – had in the past and in particular she showed archive footage of Irakli Okruashvili, then the defense minister, rejecting the New Rights Party”s allegations by saying: “If I say that Pikria Chikhradze [MP from New Rights party] spends all night standing outside the Circus [venue for street prostitutes in Tbilisi] and gives income to Davit Gamkrelidze, who is her pimp, would you believe that?”

When the anchor asked MP Pikria Chikhradze what she felt listening to that statement of Okruashvili, now when her party turned into an ally of the ex-defense minister”s party, she replied mockingly: “I think this statement would fit, in the political context, very much in reference to Mikheil Saakashvili and Nino Burjanadze.” The remarks were followed by applauses from cheering crowd of opposition bloc’s supporters and leaders in the studio.

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