Opposition Leaders Discuss Coordination for New Elections with President Zourabichvili
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
On March 10, 5th President Salome Zourabichvili met with leaders of opposition political parties to discuss the formation of a coordinated front in preparation for upcoming elections.
Tamar Chergoleishvili, a leader of the Federalists Party, spoke to the media following the meeting, explaining that Zourabichvili's initiative aims to create a unified front not only involving political parties but also the civil sector and protest movements. She also revealed that a major rally is being planned for March 31.
"Salome Zourabichvili's initiative is to create a common coordination front to prepare for new elections, which includes not only political parties, but also the civil sector, the protest part. In addition, she is preparing a rally for March 31.
In addition, we went through all the issues related to the preparation of new elections, including political prisoners, the legislative framework - what we need in order to hold normal elections in the future. We talked about these issues. The main thing is that our focus remains on new elections, and I think we will achieve new elections," Chergoleishvili said.
Tina Bokuchava, Chairperson of the Unity - National Movement, emphasized the significance of March 31 as the day of the referendum on Georgia's independence and announced the start of joint preparations for that day.
"We discussed the big rally on March 31, which is the day of the referendum on Georgia's independence and is a very important date in the history of Georgia's independence, for which we will jointly begin preparations.
Among them, we discussed the creation of a 'common resistance front' - the participation of all political parties around President Zurabishvili, for whom it is important to save the Euro-Atlantic future of our country. It is important that such a coordination format exists. Among them, maximum unity and maximum effort are the orders that exist in society," Bokuchava said.
Badri Japaridze, one of the leaders of Strong Georgia, stressed the need for greater coordination between political groups, civil society, and Zourabichvili.
"We also talked about the importance of closer coordination around political centers, society, and the president, and we will continue this conversation. It was another working and very interesting, meaningful meeting.
Salome Zourabichvili's position is that there should be maximum coordination, maximum rapprochement between political groups and civil groups. We believe that a common format should be developed around the president. 'This could be an internal resistance front, it could be a coordination council - the names don't matter here, the content is that there should be real political centers here, at the same time the public and the people who stand on the streets every day - their representation should be reflected here, in this coordination council,'" Japaridze said.
