National Forum Temporarily Leaves Assembly

The currently strained situation between oppositional factions is having an influence on the Representative Public Assembly. Due to confrontations inside the opposition, the National Forum temporally suspended its functions within the organs of the Assembly.

“The decisions made by the Representative Public Assembly are some of the most important events in the current Georgian political and social life and the Representative Public Assembly should not turn into an arena of political confrontations,” special statements by the National Forum reads. As the party representative state by such step they enable the rest “non political part of the Assembly not to be involved in the situation and make impartial decisions.” As for their future attitude towards the Assembly it must be based on the principle “support and not disturb the Assembly’s activities. “

The national forum is the second group, after Eka Beselia, leader of the movement Solidarity with Illegal prisoners, which has stopped participating in the Assembly after the Nino Burjanadze (leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia) and Levan Gachechiladze (co-leader of Georgian Party) related scandal (Burjanadze and her husband Badri Bitsadze blamed Gachechiladze for taking a bribe after the 2008 presidential elections to cease the street rallies. The statement has caused a straining of ties and controversy within oppositional spectrum).

Burjanadze, who is the member of the Assembly’s executive council and active participant of the unification, has called National Forum’s and Beselia’s decisions as partially inadequate, “It is shameful that the Representative Public Assembly was left due to my husband’s interview with the newspaper. The Assembly has a difficult period now and leaving it at the present moment is unjustified."

National Forum’s decision came as a surprise for the Assembly chair, Nona Gaprindashvili. “Their decision is incomprehensible to me since the Representative Public Assembly stands far from those political processes ongoing in the opposition,” Gaprindashvili stated.

When definite oppositional factions are actively involved in scandalous issues, parliamentary oposition Christian- Democrats call “...street opposition as a passive event and exclude street rallies from the next year," As it said, "The street opposition took a childlessness drug and we can expect nothing from them next year. We are going to strengthen our party organizations and prepare for 2012 parliamentary elections," Nika Laliahvili from Christian-Democrats, stated.

As analyst Irakli Sesiashvili told The Messenger, “When people are tired of the authority's undemocratic behavior, conflict within the opposition makes the situation harder. It is difficult to trust one side or another, the facts must be clarified. In the event that the allegations are confirmed, all sides would have to answer for this and if it is not true and Gachechiladze was blamed without any fault, Georgian society should also know about it. I am surprised as to why the prosecutor’s office does not express interest concerning the issue.”

According to analyst Soso Tsiskarishvili, “Burjanadze’s statements (regarding Gachechiladze and the interview given by Bitsadze to Asaval-Dasavali newspaper) will definitely have a negative influence on the Representative Public Assembly’s plans and intentions. If the Assembly is involved in the oppositional confrontation, nothing positive can happen with it," Tsiskarishvili told The Messenger.