Opposition To Hold ‘Peaceful Rally’ on President’s Inauguration Day
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, December 13
The United National Movement opposition will hold a peaceful rally on the inauguration day in Telavi on 16 December to protest the results of the 28 November presidential elections.
Former opposition presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze has called upon other opposition parties to participate in the demonstration.
"The United Opposition has already stated several times that there no presidential elections were held in Georgia. It was a special operation carried out by criminal groups and corrupt officials.
“We offered to start a political process in order to hear the opinion of voters, but the government ignored it. Since the authorities have not paid attention to our proposal or the international observers’ opinion, we will hold a peaceful demonstration on December 16," Vashadze said.
Salome Samadashvili, member of the party who previously stated that she would not take part in the rally, now says that she will participate in it only after the goals of the rally are announced.
“There should not be a process when Vashadze is declared as the president in a parallel regime,” Samadashvili said.
Vashadze stated last week that he will not attend the inauguration.
President-elect Salome Zurabishvili said that Vashadze would be invited at the ceremony only if he recognized the “legally elected president” and congratulated her on her victory, “as this happens in developed countries.”
On December 2 rally the opposition demanded the rejection of the election results and called upon the government to create a working group with the opposition to find solutions from the “political crisis.”
The government rejected the offer and stated that Zurabishvili was elected by the Georgian people and has been recognized by the international community to the role.
International and local observers stated about various violations on the Election Day but none of them reported that Zurabishvili was elected unlawfully.
