Opposition UNM party meets supporters at pre-election gathering in Tbilisi

The number of supporters at the square became a hot discussion in social media. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Agenda.ge, 05 Oct 2016 - 20:09, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgia’s opposition and ex-ruling party (2003-2012) United National Movement (UNM) hosted final rally as the part of its pre-election campaign in central Tbilisi today.

Party leaders said the rally was to "summarise UNM’s campaign” three days before Saturday’s Parliamentary Elections.

The rally took place at Rose Revolution Square, in front of Tbilisi Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel in the centre of the capital city.

The gathering was joined by UNM supporters from Tbilisi and by more who had venture in from the country’s regional villages and towns.

Size of the crowd

The number of supporters at today’s rally was hot discussion on Georgia’s social media.

General view of the UNM rally from the highest floor of the Radisson Blu Iveria hotel.  All photos are captioned around 17:10 Tbilisi local time. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

Agenda.ge estimated the size of the crowd using media’s classical method: We measured the rally area using Google Maps and defined the density using photos captured by our photographer from the highest floor of the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel.

A loose crowd, where each person is an arm's length from the body of his/her nearest neighbour, needed 0.9 m² per person. A more tightly packed crowd would fill 0.4 m² per person.

The area where the gathering took place measures 4,827 m². In Agenda.ge  pictures you can clearly see the density of the crowd, which varies in different parts of Rose Revolution Square.

The density of the crowd close to the tribune. All photos are captioned around 17:10 Tbilisi local time. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

The density of the crowd in the area opposite to the tribune, in front of Raddison Blu Iveria Hotel building. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

The density of the crowd in the middle of the Square. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

Average density of the crowd can be seen in this photo. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge. 

Through our calculations, we believe that the number of supporters on the square is in the middle of two figures:

  • in a loose crowd there were 5,363 people
  • in a tightly packed crowd there could be up about 12,000 people.

After UNM leaders addressed their supporters, Georgia’s ex-president and founder of UNM Mikheil Saakashvili made a video address to the crowd from his home in Ukraine. He promised his supporters UNM would win the Parliamentary Elections and "he will cross Georgia’s border”.

Following this rally participants walked down Rustaveli Ave and the demonstration ended outside at Parliament Building earlier this afternoon.

The Parliamentary Elections will take place in Georgia on October 8.