Opposition Calls for Rally, as Date Set for New Parliament

The eight-party opposition coalition and the Labor Party have called on supporters to gather outside the parliament from midnight after it was announced that the newly elected parliament’s inaugural session was convened for June 7.

“On behalf of the eight-party opposition coalition I am entitled to call on you for a protest rally; we are starting gathering outside the parliament from midnight and tomorrow 9am we should all be gathered outside the parliament,” Kakha Kukava of the Conservative Party, part of the eight-party bloc, said while speaking in a live talk show aired by the public TV late on June 6. “It will be absolutely peaceful protest rally. There will be no violence… We are expecting tens of thousands of people… hundred of thousand of people gathered there [outside the parliament]; the world should see that the [ruling] party which claims to have 60% of votes has to enter into the parliament through a cordon made by riot police.”

He also said that the opposition should achieve repeat parliamentary elections through street protest rallies.