MEP Kaljurand urges Georgian ex-president Saakashvili to refrain from provocations ahead of elections
MEP Marina Kaljurand has urged Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili to respect the OSCE/ODIHR conclusion on October 2 municipal elections in Georgia when it is released. Photo: OSCE.
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MEP Marina Kaljurand has urged Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili to refrain from provocations, use his political capital to depolarise the pre-election situation in Georgia and respect the OSCE/ODIHR conclusion on the October 2 municipal elections in Georgia.
Kaljurand’s tweet comes after MEPs met with Saakashvili yesterday in Brussels.
Saakashvili, who currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, has pledged he will return to Georgia for the upcoming elections to ‘end the reign’ of the Georgian Dream (GD) government.
He has told Georgian armed forces that he is ‘counting on them’ and urged them to ‘actively participate’ in the elections.
At MEPs meeting with @SaakashviliM I urged him to restrain from provocations and use his political capital to help to depolarize pre-election situation in Georgia and respect @osce_odihr decision after ???????? local elections on Oct.2 pic.twitter.com/774YiN2MCG
— Marina Kaljurand MEP (@MarinaKaljurand) September 14, 2021
The ruling party also accuses him and his United National Movement (UNM) of releasing personal data earlier this week which was allegedly leaked from the country’s State Security Service.
The GD says that the files, which were sent to media outlets on Monday, were compiled through illegal surveillance when the UNM was in power.
GD officials say they ‘are sure’ that Saakashvili will not return to Georgia ‘as he has already made the promise 17 times.’
Ruling party head Irakli Kobakhidze has stated that Saakashvili will be arrested if he returns.
Saakashvili, who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013, left Georgia back in 2013 after the Georgian Dream (GD) came to power in 2012.
He faces several criminal charges such as the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007, a raid on TV channel Imedi by riot police, and the illegal take-over of property and other crimes.