Saakashvili’s Address After Elections

Televised address was aired early on May 22

Yesterday the Georgian people said its say – Georgia’s multi-ethnic population, which represents our Georgian people expressed its democratic position about what kind of parliament Georgia should have within the next years.

To say the truth – although I always believed in your right way of thinking – even I was astonished by the big level of support which we got in these parliamentary elections.

And this is a sign of individuality of the Georgian people after four years of very painful economic, political and legal reforms – those reforms which lead Georgia ahead, but which, of course, were difficult for many Georgian families.

Georgian people found force to support the continuation of this course, to support implementation of further reforms in Georgia, further Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia, unification of the country.

At the same time, I want to say that I thank each voter regardless of which party you have supported.

This new parliament will be much more pluralistic, much more multi-party than the previous one.

It seems that some more parties, along with the National Movement, will enter the parliament and I am eager to cooperate and to have a dialogue with even the smallest faction, the smallest opposition group, as well as with the opposition parties of any size.

There are no final figures yet but there is a very high probability that the National Movement will get the number of seats in parliament that would be close to a constitutional majority [two-third of 150-seat Parliament].

I want to tell everybody that regardless whether we have constitutional majority or not, we are not planning and we will not make any constitutional amendments without participation of the opposition and moreover, we will not make any amendments without consultations with and participation of the entire political spectrum.

Everyone should be calm in this regard; we will not touch fundamental principles of the country [unilaterally], whatever representation we have in the new parliament.

I want everybody to know that regardless of how the opposition is represented in this multi-party parliament, I will do my best, together with my friends that these opposition groups have much more levers of controlling the government, parliament and that there is more transparency in the government’s activities and to ensure that even the smallest interests of the Georgian society – and all these political groups represent a wide spectrum of the Georgian society – are taken into consideration and that everybody has an opportunity to participate in further ruling the country, as well as in making decisions on Georgia’s fate.

I want to call on all political groups to respect the will of the Georgian people. I want to promise our people that we will defend the will of the Georgian people and nobody will ever raise his hand against this will and no one has to have any illusion in this regard.

At the same time, we want to call on everybody for cooperation. I want to have a very collegial relation with the parliament after it is convened; I want that we strengthen its role in the Georgian society that we strengthen both parliamentary control over the government, as well as the entire society’s control on each branch of the government, to bring all levels of the government closer to those people, whom they serve.    

And finally, we all, the president, the parliament, various branches of the government, serve the people, we receive power from the people and we receive this power only to serve the people, Georgia’s interests and nothing more. We will certainly protect it.

Thank you who participating in the elections. I want to promise you that as it was previously, Georgia will have the government which represents the interests of each Georgian citizen and which will struggle for better future of our citizens and Georgia, as a whole.

Thank you very much.