Opposition Doesn’t Unveil Its Plans for Presidential Inauguration
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, December 11
Ten opposition parties, which supported the United National Movement candidate Grigol Vashadze in the Georgian presidential elections, do not announce their plans regarding the 16 December presidential inauguration in the eastern Georgian town of Telavi.
“You will see what we will do on the inauguration day,” Giorgi Vashadze, head of Grigol Vashadze’s election staff told the media on Monday after the opposition filed a lawsuit in the Tbilisi City Court to achieve the annulment of the results of 28 November presidential election runoff.
Earlier, one of the members of the United National Movement Tina Bokuchava said that the opposition will hold a rally in Telavi, in parallel of the inauguration ceremony.
Another member of the party Salome Samadashvili went against the decision saying that with such steps the opposition would damage its image inside and outside the country.
She stated that the opposition’s statements about the civil disobedience or illegitimacy of the elections after the race “have decreased the negative assessments of the elections by the international community,” which finally affected the opposition’s interests.
The Georgian Dream ruling party claims that everything will be done to ensure the high-level conduct of the ceremony.
A 30-member commission has been created to organize the process, which is chaired by the head of the administration of the government of Georgia Kakha Kakhishvili.
The ruling party has called upon the opposition to “refrain from staging provocations”.
The Georgian Dream ruling party endorsed independent presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili received 0.9 percent more votes than Vashadze in the first round of 28 October presidential elections.
As none of the candidates were able to receive at least 51 percent of votes, the second round of elections was scheduled.
In the runoff elections conducted in a month-time Zurabishvili received about 10 percent more votes than Vashadze.
The opposition says that the government used all its resources to influence voters.
International organizations stated about various violations on the elections. However, they said that the elections were conducted in a competitive environment and that Zurabishvili won the race.
