Saakashvili: we’ll manage to call early elections in max. 10 days after my release from prison
Saakashvili believes that Georgia’s western partners will support the opposition in their endeavors. Photo: ipn.ge
Tweet 
Share
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili released a letter from Rustavi Prison No. 12 earlier today, urging the public to join anti-government rallies announced by the opposition.
Saakashvili claims the opposition won the local self-government elections in all cities of Georgia, and asks the citizens of Georgia to join the street rallies, demanding the annulment of election results and his release from prison.
When I’m released from prison, I give you my word, in a maximum of 10 days, we’ll manage to call early elections, he wrote.
Saakashvili believes that Georgia’s western partners will support the opposition in their endeavours as they ‘precisely addressed the election violations.’
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party won 63 out of 64 mayoral constituencies in the first and second round of 2021 municipal elections, and received 47% of the votes in the proportional part of the race.
Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) and other opposition parties discredited the election results as ‘void’ and ‘fabricated,’ and announced protest rallies in selected cities of Georgia.
Saakashvili, who is currently a citizen of Ukraine, fled Georgia in 2013, a year after the UNM lost the parliamentary elections to the GD. In 2018, Georgian court convicted him in absentia on two counts of abuse of power and sentenced him to six years in prison.
The ex-president was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1, after his clandestine return to Georgia.
Saakashvili is currently facing five additional charges, including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border crossing.
The former president denies all charges, considers himself a political prisoner, and has reportedly been on a hunger strike since his arrest.
Former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, has from prison urged opposition MPs to leave their mandates in protest, stating that the Georgian Dream (GD) government fabricated the results of recent municipal elections.
Georgian opposition leaders have gathered with their supporters in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi to protest the results of the October 30 run-off municipal elections. The opposition, claiming that the election results were fabricated, announced rallies in the cities of Batumi, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi, in addition to the massive demonstration in Tbilisi scheduled for November 7.
OSCE/ODIHR and European Parliament (EP) observation missions have assessed Georgian municipal election run-offs held yesterday, stating that the race ‘was generally competitive and organized professionally’, but increasing polarization and negative rhetoric, as well as allegations of voter intimidation and the ‘continuing advantage of incumbency, demonstrated the need for further reforms.
Overall six criminal charges are filed against recently arrested Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been convicted to six years of imprisonment in two cases while four other criminal cases are still being heard in Tbilisi City Court.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party MP, Mamuka Mdinaradze, says that he is sure the arrested former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, will feel good on the 41st day on hunger strike and will appear in a funny situation.
Droa opposition party leader, Elene Khoshtaria, has gone on hunger strike in the parliament building of Georgia, demanding the transfer of former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvil, to a civil clinic for treatment.
Several opposition parties and members have criticized Georgian president Salome Zurabishvili for a recent statement that she will never pardon ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.Zurabishvili said yesterday that Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile, ‘is neither a political prisoner, nor a victim of injustice,’ noting that the former president returned to Georgia to incite unrest.
The Georgian opposition led by the United National Movement (UNM) is holding rallies in protest of the results of October 30 municipal election run-offs in Batumi and Rustavi. Claiming that the elections have been ‘stolen’ by the ruling Georgian Dream party, UNM leader Nika Melia, who ran for Tbilisi mayor, said in Batumi that the opposition will hold permanent rallies until ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s release.