Ruling party urges opposition to act constructively, prepare for 2nd round of elections
Georgian Dream party Secretary General Kakha Kaladze has responded to yesterday’s rally of opposition parties. Photo: GD.
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The Georgian Dream ruling party has called on opposition parties not to follow radical political groups, return to a constructive mode of action and prepare for the second round of majoritarian elections.
No one will be able to achieve any results through destructive actions and attempts to escalate the situation,” GD Secretary General Kakha Kaladze stated earlier today.
The opposition parties, who say that the October 31 parliamentary elections were falsified, held a rally yesterday and attempted to storm the building of Georgia’s Central Election Commission.
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The rally was dispersed with the use of water cannons. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Kaladze said that up to a million voters declared confidence in the ruling party in the elections ‘which means that GD will form a government alone, per the decision of the Georgian people’.
If anyone believes that the opposition has a legitimate claim against the results at specific polling stations, we urge everyone not to hinder the recount process (which is taking place on the basis of their own complaints) with their destructive actions and to follow legal procedures, try to defend their position in this manner, and prepare for the second round of the elections,” Kaladze said.
Kaladze urged people to be calm ‘as we must all act responsibly before the country and the law’.
He thanked law enforcement officers ‘for acting with the utmost caution; they were able to repel the attack on the constitutional institution with the minimal use of force’.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has responded to the opposition’s election-related rally yesterday and stated that ‘every process seeking to take matters to the street, like what we saw yesterday, must be, on our own initiative and that of our strategic partners, transferred onto a legal and political platform.’
During the protest rally on November 8, police detained 19 individuals for 'violating public order and disobedience to a rightful command of the police.’
Local non-governmental organisations Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC), Transparency International Georgia (TI) and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) call on the interior ministry not to use police forces against peaceful demonstrators. Meanwhile, opposition politicians, who refuse to take their parliamentary mandates and demand to hold repeat parliamentary elections, plan to stay at the CEC overnight.
Opposition politicians and their supporters have gathered in front of the parliament of Georgia on Rustaveli Avenue, demanding repeat parliamentary elections be held. Claiming that the Central Election Commission (CEC) has falsified the results in favour of the ruling Georgian Dream party, opposition politicians are calling on the public to ‘protect their vote’.
The Central Election Commission has published an announcement where it responds to opposition’s rally held yesterday in front of the CEC building, calling it the pressure on the Election Administration, noting readiness to discuss any topic related to the elections peacefully with the involvement of various parties.
Opposition parties that claim the October 31 parliamentary elections were fabricated will continue rallies on Saturday, November 14, at 15:00, in central Tbilisi.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze says that the acceptance of October 31 election results is the precondition for holding negotiations with the opposition.
Four opposition parties which overcame the 1% mandatory threshold in the October 31 parliamentary elections - European Georgia, Girchi, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, Lelo for Georgia - have issued a joint statement earlier today confirming they will continue their ‘peaceful protest against the rigged elections’.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has again called on opposition politicians to move the political processes from ‘destructive’ street protests to negotiations with the involvement of international partners.
MEPs Andrius Kubilius, Rasa Jukneviciene and Lithuanian MP Zygimantas Pavilionis have responded to the Georgian opposition’s election-related rallies in Tbilisi and said in a joint statement that the Georgian government should start a dialogue with the opposition.