President Saakashvili moves to the opposition
By Ana Robakidze
Wednesday, October 3
According to the first preliminary results of the elections posted by the Central Election Commission (CEC), a new party has come into the power. Having calculated votes from 1, 312 polling districts, the CEC has announced that the Georgian Dream has received 54.01 % of the total votes in the proportional contest, while the ruling United National Movement is said to have received 41.03% of votes.
Votes from other districts are still to be counted. However, considering the exit polls, final results shall not be much different and the Georgian Dream will get the majority of the seats in a new Parliament.
The Georgian Dream is now set to become the new ruling party in the country; hence the United National Movement has to move into the opposition.
“As the leader of the UNM, I would like to announce that the UNM is moving into the opposition,” Mikheil Saakshvili confirmed in his official statement.
“It is now obvious that Georgian Dream Coalition has received the majority of votes; therefore a new government should be formed by the majority of the Parliament. I myself, as the president of Georgia, will fully support all procedures taken to make sure the new parliament is formed and fulfils its duties to elect the head of the Parliament and form a new government.”
The president finds the ideas and goals of the Georgian Dream absolutely unacceptable for his party. However, he respects the choice Georgians have made. He just wants to make sure that all achievements brought by the Rose Revolution are protected in the future and nothing prevents the development of the country.
Bidzina Ivanishvili sees the progress of the country and its role in the world in a slightly different way. The leader of the Georgian Dream Coalition finds it difficult to turn Georgia into one of the major acting countries in global politics, “we shall focus on our region” Ivanishvili commented, while holding a press-conference on Tuesday, October 2nd. This was his first official appearance with journalists after the elections.
He also mentioned that no decisions have been made so far about the government and the names of future ministers are not known yet, even for Ivanishvili, as consultations need to be held with other leading members of the coalition. However, there is one important thing Ivanishvili is absolutely sure about; none of the acting ministers will be the part of a new government.
“There will be many steps to be taken, I cannot say which one will be the first…The government needs to be balanced,” Ivanishvili commented.
The major issue for Ivanishvili is maintaining and improving foreign policy and strengthening the partnership with strategic partners. “We are still heading to NATO” Ivanishvili said. He is also confident that proper ways of diplomacy can lead to a better foreign policy and can even drastically improve relations with Russia.
