US ambassador on Saakashvili’s alleged return: what Georgia needs is a calm election environment
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has expressed hope that the October 2 municipal elections will point at progress in Georgia’s democratic development. Photo: US embassy press office.
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US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has commented on Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s alleged plan to return to Georgia on October 2, the day of municipal elections in the country, and said that ‘what Georgia needs now is a peaceful, calm election environment and not political instability and violence.’
Degnan said that many statements have been made on the alleged return of Saakashvili and she had no plans to go into details.
She said that elections should improve upon previous political races.
Degnan says that improvements are a sign that a country is devoted to democratic development.
Saakashvili has released an image of a reserved ticket for the evening of October 2.
The ruling Georgian Dream party and state officials say that the former president will be arrested if he really returns.
MEP Viola Von Cramon has stated that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s return to the country for the October 2 municipal elections ‘will not serve the interests of Georgia,’ noting that it will deepen the crisis and create unnecessary tension. Saakashvili pledged earlier in September that he will return to Georgia for the local elections and published a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia yesterday.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that if Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili will return for the October 2 municipal elections in Georgia, he will be arrested. Saakashvili has posted a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia for the evening of the day of municipal elections in Georgia.
Former president of Georgian Mikheil Saakashvili, who currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, has posted a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia for the evening of the day of municipal elections in Georgia on October 2. Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine, has called on voters to support the opposition and after the closure of polling stations took to the street ‘to defend votes.’
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.
Political parties in Georgia spent over 11 million GEL between August 2 and September 12, says the interim report on the October 2 local self-government elections published by the State Audit Office of Georgia.
US Senator Jeanne Shaheen has stated that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s return to the country is unlikely ‘to be useful’ and won’t ‘help ease the situation’ in Georgia. In an interview with the Georgian bureau of Voice of America (VOA), she also noted that after the parliamentary elections in 2012 when the United National Movement (UNM) lost the race and the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party came to power, Saakashvili who was Georgia’s president under the UNM-led government ‘discredited himself.’