United Opposition Raises Demands to Gov’t at a Rally
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, December 4
Ten opposition parties and their joint presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze held a rally on Rustaveli Avenue on Sunday, in the wake of the November 28 presidential race, in which the Georgian Dream ruling party endorsed independent presidential candidate defeated Vashadze, as she received almost 10 percent more votes.
The opposition says that the government fabricated the elections and used the budgetary resources to help Salome Zourabichvili win the elections.
At the rally, the opposition members stated that they would address the court to achieve the rejection of the election results and gave 13 days to the government, until 16 December, to form a working group which would sit with the opposition to find the outcomes of the “current political crisis.”
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the audience in a live video and promised them saying: “when you call me, I would come and stand with you.”
He appealed to the people gathered at the rally not to give up and defend their votes.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze responded that “everything that was happening at the rally was very unserious and comical.”
He said that the rally showed the decreased number of the opposition supporters and “no resource” of the opposition to stir destabilization.
Local and foreign NGOs spoke about the shortcomings in the elections. However, they said that the elections were conducted transparently in the competitive election environment.
