Georgia: Opposition Increases the Pressure
Protests bring Tbilisi to a halt as Shevardnadze refuses to back down.
Georgia: Opposition Increases the Pressure
Protests bring Tbilisi to a halt as Shevardnadze refuses to back down.
Georgian opposition leader Mikael Saakashvili has told his supporters that dialogue with President Eduard Shevardnadze is "pointless", as he steps up his efforts to force the veteran Georgian leader to resign.
Saakashvili, who claims that his party the National Movement was "cheated of victory" in the November 2 parliamentary elections, has now called for a new mass rally in front of parliament on November 14, as protests continue to paralyse Tbilisi and the country waits tensely to see how the eleven-day confrontation will end.
"All resources for conducting negotiating with President Eduard Shevardnadze are exhausted," Saakashvili told a rally in central Tbilisi. "The whole population of Georgia has to join the protest rally on Friday in front of parliament. The president needs dialogue only to win time to consolidate his forces."
"Either Shevardnadze admits that the National Movement and the democratic opposition were the overall winners in these elections, or he has to step down from the post of president," he thundered. "Resign, resign!" echoed the crowd.
Saakashvili stormed out of talks with the president on November 10 after the president said he would not listen to "insulting statements".
The National Movement's protests have continued for a fifth day despite rain and the November chill. The capital's central Rustaveli Avenue is blocked, while the president's office and the state chancellery remains cordoned off by riot police
Saakashvili evidently hopes that the current administration will fall apart under pressure, thus paving the way for him to come to power. He prophesied that the Georgian president would share the fate of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and claimed "that there is a 12 square-meter cell waiting for Shevardnadze".
Shevardnadze himself has tried to shore up his tottering presidency by winning the support of his old rival Aslan Abashidze, the leader of the autonomous republic of Ajaria. Abashidze flew to Moscow on November 13, after visiting the presidents of both Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier in the week. (See following article).
According to official results, the pro-government bloc For a New Georgia captured 20.1 per cent of the vote in the parliamentary polls. Abashidze's Revival party was given 18.3 per cent and Saakishvili's National Movement was placed third with 17.5 per cent.
But exit polls and a parallel count by the Free Elections organisation gave the National Movement a clear lead.
Despite fears of violence, talks are still continuing to end the crisis, with suggestions that the election may be re-run in many areas or even nationwide.
Zurab Chiaberashvili, head of Free Elections, said that members of the presidential administration had asked him to show them the methodology of his parallel vote count. The prosecutor's office is studying complaints about irregularities in voter lists on polling day.
However, Shevardnadze has thus far refused to make any substantial concessions. "It is not in my capacity to annul the vote count. There are legal mechanisms for this, in which I cannot interfere," he argued. The government gained the greatest number of voters fairly, he claimed, adding, "I don't care what some observers say."
Opposition leader, Nino Burjanadze, speaker of the outgoing parliament, said that a meeting with Shevardnadze had not taken place because "the authorities did not have any concrete proposals, which could be called a compromise".
Burjanadze, who leads a centrist opposition bloc with another former speaker Zurab Zhvania, is calling for a complete rerun of the poll. They are still calling for dialogue and have refrained from all-out attacks on the president.
By contrast, Saakashvili, the former justice minister with a populist reputation, says he wants nothing less than the removal of Shevardnadze himself.
Tbilisi is rife with rumours about what happens next, in particular the role of Abashidze and his patrons in Moscow. A hard-line leader of the pro-government party Guram Sharadze also accused US Ambassador Richard Miles - who has been actively talking to all sides over the last few days - of interfering in internal affairs.
Ambassador Miles denied this, saying, "I'm happy to try to do what I can in talking to representatives of the government and also leaders of the opposition parties - including those not taking part in the demonstrations.
"I'm happy to continue stressing the issues with them, to try to be of assistance or offer suggestions. But I don't consider that to be the role of a mediator."
The population, fearful of a return of the kind of unrest that convulsed the country a decade ago, is divided in its opinions. Many are worried that Saakashvili's penchant for radical tactics may lead to bloodshed, which would be disastrous for a country already riven by ethnic tensions.
"People are tired of war and political rhetoric. We need peace. This whole situation is fraught with violence, which is sweeping the country. There will be civil war and chaos again," a truck driver Gocha Giorkhelidzde, 34, told IWPR. "I don't support these sham oppositionists as they were also in the government and did little to help the people then."
But many people believe that the president's time is up. "For ten years, [Shevardnadze and his government] have done nothing to improve the disastrous situation in this country, so why should anybody support them?" said Tbilisi teacher Tamila Katamadze.
"I don't know a single person who has voted for the government in these elections, so how come they won?" she asked outside the parliament building, adding, "I will not leave, until Shevardnadze leaves."
Giorgy Lomsadze is Tbilisi editor for Caspian Business News.
