Alliance of Patriots demands resignation of Georgia’s current government

By Tea Mariamidze

Tuesday, October 24

Gocha Tevdoradze, a member of APG, says that the party will hold a protest rally on October 29.

On October 1, three APG members left for Moscow in order to meet Russian MPs.

A minority parliamentary opposition party, the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia (APG),is demanding the resignation of the government.

The party, which is often described as affiliated with Russia, says that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party is responsible for the grave economic and social conditions in the country.

Gocha Tevdoradze, a member of APG, says that the party will hold a protest rally on October 29 with a purpose to start a hunger strike until the government resigns.

The party’s main demand is to make amendments to the Constitution. The party also calls on the government to take active steps and create a trilateral format of negotiations between Georgia, NATO and Russia.

“We are not only protesting against the adoption of the Constitution and the existing election system, but the social and economic situation as well. People in this country are starving,” said Tevdoradze.

He also stressed that the party is not satisfied with the results of October 21 local election, according to which, GD will have 15 MPs out of 25 mandates in Tbilisi City Council, while the opposition United National Movement will likely have five MPs on the proportional list. Presumably, three mandates will go to European Georgia and two to the Alliance of Patriots.

“The government says that the European Georgia party received more votes than we did. It is impossible,” Tevdoradze protested.

The October 29 demonstration will be the fourth rally arranged by APG this autumn. The party held rallies on September 17, October 1 and October 21, calling on the Central Election Commission (CEC) ‘not to forge’ the elections.

Moreover, on October 1, APG members Ada Marshania, Giorgi Lomia and Nato Chkheidze left for Moscow in order to meet Russian parliamentarians for the second time. The previous visit took place in June this year. At that time, MPs from Georgian Dream stressed that such visits shall be considered only as of private individuals and do not carry a message from the Georgian Parliament.

Despite the allegations of being Russian proxies in Georgia, the APG last year managed to win six mandates in the parliamentary elections and became the third opposition party in the 150-seat legislative body.