Merabishvili: Elections will be Held Calmly

Vano Merabishvili, a powerful interior minister, said two days before the local elections that he was confident the May 30 polls would be held calmly and no unrests would follow the elections.

“I am sure there will be calm and order at all the polling stations and voters will be able to cast their ballot freely for a party, which they support,” Merabishvili said in an interview with Russian radio station, Ekho Moskvy, on May 28.

He said that those who had been predicting Kyrgyz-type of developments in Georgia after the elections, “are apparently not informed” about the current situation in Georgia.

“I do not know other country in the region where the situation is calmer than it is in Georgia,” Merabishvili said.

He also said that situation in the areas adjacent to breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia remains as “tense as it was a year ago” and there was no improvement.

“Bandits and occupants are standing there [in the breakaway regions], all the time trying to shoot, fuel up tensions and to steal property,” Merabishvili said. “Decisions there [in breakaway regions] are taken by bandits and occupants. Their only goal is to destabilize situation in Georgia… Russia has occupied parts of Georgia and continues actions directed against Georgia.”

Asked how far Russia could go in its efforts to destabilize Georgia, Merabishvili responded: “As far as it can… It’s a fact that Georgia is the enemy number one for the Russian authorities.”

Asked about his opponents’ claims that Georgia had been turned into “police state”, Merabishvili responded that the police in Georgia enjoyed with 82% confidence rate.

“Effectiveness of the police is very high and all the rest… is simply propaganda of our enemies, who want to blacken the Georgian democracy,” Merabishvili said and added that there was not a single case to back the critics’ claims about the police state.

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