European Georgia opposition party on solution for political crisis

| News, Georgia
Bildrechte: report.ge
Bildrechte: report.ge

The opposition European Georgia party has offered its strategy for resolving the country's current political crisis, claiming that the only way out is for the incumbent Georgian Dream (GD) party to be defeated in emergency elections.

Giga Bokeria, the party's leader, stated that talking about "reaching change exclusively through non-electoral means" is "destructive," adding that it "causes voter discontent."

The opposition began protesting the results of the October 30 municipal election runoffs, alleging that the elections were rigged and seeking for the results to be annulled.

The ruling party received 47% of the vote in the proportional phase of the election, but the opposition secured a majority in city assemblies in six of the 64 municipalities — Batumi, Zugdidi, Martvili, Chkhorotsku, Tsalenjikha, and Rustavi – according to the final results.

The European Georgia party also thinks that to gain widespread national support to hold snap elections “the opposition must stop simulating the democratic process in an illegitimate parliament.”

"We cannot, on the one hand, call the elections meaningless, as this sends a false message and instils hopelessness, and on the other hand, [we cannot also] engage in routine procedures in parliament which creates a simulation of democracy,” Bokeria said.

The Lelo opposition party leader Ana Natsvlishvili, however, criticised Bokeria for “turning into the opposition of the opposition” stating that the opposition should be focused on system change.

"To call early elections without changing this system would leave the government with a very sharp, unjust weapon to fight against us,” Natsvlishvili said.

Bokeria has also touched upon the issue of the former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who currently is serving his sentence for the abuse of power in two cases, and stated that it is “wrong, illogical and harmful” to consider Saakashvili’s release from prison as a precondition for the defeat of the regime.

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