Lelo offers gov’t launch negotiations with opposition to ‘solve crisis’
The Lelo opposition party says that Georgia is going through ‘a very complicated period’ in its history. Photo: Lelo for Georgia party press office.
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The Lelo parliamentary opposition party has offered the government to launch negotiations with the opposition ‘immediately’ to prevent further escalation of the political situation and find a way out of the ‘existing crisis.’
The party says the polarization and tension in the country may lead to an ‘irreversible crisis.’
First of all the government must allow the transfer of the arrested former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to a civil clinic, to receive treatment, and then Saakashvili should present himself before a fair court,” Lelo said.
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The party says that if the government refuses to take these steps, It will not be able to stabilize the situation.
The opposition parties took to the streets shortly after recent municipal elections, demanding the annulment of election results and the release of Saakashvili.
Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after eight years in political exile, claims he returned to Georgia to remove the Georgian Dream government from power.
He has been on hunger strike for 39 days, demanding to be transferred to a civil clinic.
Top Georgian officials say that Saakashvili is ‘staging a show’ with his hunger strike, and has plans to cause unrest if he is brought to a civil clinic.
Instead, he has been offered treatment in a ‘well-equipped’ prison hospital, which Saakashvili declined.
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili has called on the opposition for ‘constructive cooperation’, and for debates in the state legislature instead of rallies.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that his cabinet is ready to cooperate with the opposition in a constructive manner, and if the opposition wants to hold debates, they should be held in the state legislature and not elsewhere. Georgian opposition parties took to the streets after recent municipal elections, demanding the annulment of election results and the release of former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, from prison.
Nika Melia, the chairman of the United National Movement opposition party, has given the government 24 hours to ensure the imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili is moved from prison to a private clinic, as law enforcement made arrests at the opposition's rally outside the detention facility in the city of Rustavi on Saturday.
The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia has posted a footage and photographs on social media of the imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili receiving food at the prison facility in the city of Rustavi, amid contradictory claims made by penitentiary and justice officials and opposition figures about the hunger strike and health of the high-profile inmate.
The third president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, has been officially charged for the illegal crossing of the state border earlier today. Six other criminal charges are filed against 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.
Droa opposition party leader, Elene Khoshtaria, who has been on hunger strike for six days while demanding the transfer of former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to a civil clinic, says that she is ‘strongly against’ Saakashvili returning to power.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia has called on citizens and opposition leaders to ‘observe public order’ during a protest rally which will be held today on Freedom Square in the capital of Tbilisi. Opposition leaders announced a mass demonstration in the centre of Tbilisi following the government dismissal of their demand to transfer the former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili from prison to a private hospital for treatment.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party has plans to ‘block state buildings and streets and to throw out the members of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) from the cabinets they occupied illegally’ after the recent municipal elections, UNM member Levan Khebeishvili stated earlier today.
Droa opposition party leader, Elene Khoshtaria, who has been on hunger strike for seven days in solidarity with former president Mikheil Saakashvili, says that she will not take medication until a doctor tells her that her life is at risk and she may die.