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
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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.