Opposition Figure: ‘Surprises Planned for May 26’

Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of New Rights Party, part of Alliance for Georgia, said the opposition planed “surprises” for the authorities on May 26.

On May 26 – the Georgia’s Independence Day – opposition plans a large-scale rally or as it calls it “a public parade.” Some opposition leaders described the planned event as “a new April 9”, when tens of thousands of people rallied on the first day of launch of the ongoing street protests.

“May 26 will be full of surprises both for the society and first of all for Saakashvili,” Gamkrelidze said while speaking in public TV’s program, Political Week, on May 24. He declined to elaborate details.

Asked if the opposition planned to announce a single leader on May 26, Gamkrelidze responded: “I am not either confirming or denying that; but I think there will be more important things on May 26.”

In a newspaper interview last week Davit Zurabishvili, an opposition politician from Republican Party, which is also part of Alliance for Georgia, said that there were considerations among opposition parties about possibility of naming a single leader, who would establish himself as a presidential contender backed by parties, behind the ongoing protest rallies.

It was a joint decision of the opposition parties, which are organizers of the street protests launched on April 9, not to have a single leader. Davit Gamkrelidze was the first to challenge publicly that approach in late April by saying that not having a single leader was not at all the opposition’s advantage.

There are two opposition leaders, among those who are organizing the ongoing protests, who have publicly said about having ambitions to run for presidency – Irakli Alasania, leader of Alliance for Georgia and Nino Burjanadze, a former parliamentary speaker and leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia.

On May 26 the opposition plans to hold a rally at Boris Paichadze National Stadium, scheduled to start at noon and then continue by march towards the Rustaveli Avenue.

Part of opposition leaders are now campaigning in the provinces in lead up to the “public parade.” A singer and activists, Giorgi Gachechiladze (with nickname Ucnobi – unknown), who has turned into an informal leader of the protests, leads this campaign which started on May 20. He was in the town of Gori on May 24 and on May 25 he, accompanied by supporters, plans to camp in Mtskheta close to Tbilisi, before joining the “public parade” on May 26.

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