Ex-president Saakashvili against referendum
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, March 5
Georgian ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili has stated that Georgian opposition parties must not accept a referendum instead of repeat parliamentary elections. In an address posted on his Facebook page, Saakashvili presented the idea of holding a plebiscite on the issue of early elections as Bidzina Ivanishvili's idea.
“Even if he loses this referendum (and he definitely will), then he will have a few more months before local elections to bribe, intimidate, arrest and, most importantly, expel hundreds of thousands of other active voters from the country.”
Saakashvili hopes that after Nika Melia leaves prison he will make drastic decisions in this direction. At the same time, he calls on everyone for unity and activism and says that the country needs early elections, since "Ivanishvili's plan is now to make cosmetic changes in the election commission, remove Zhvania, appoint someone else, wrap himself in this plebiscite in his own way and then try all kinds of manipulations."
After a meeting between European Council President Charles Michel and leaders of opposition parties, Giga Bokeria, Chairman of the European Georgia Political Council, said that apart from minor nuances, the opposition had a fundamentally common message and one of the issues raised by the opposition was early parliamentary elections. According to him, the plebiscite was an issue raised by the initiative of European Georgia earlier and party still supports it, viewing referendum as a serious compromise.
Opposition leaders Salome Samadashvili, Davit Berdzenishvili, Elene Khoshtaria and others do not agree with Saakashvili’s announcement either, arguing that there’s no use in discussing how the opposition’s goal of early elections will be achieved. Khoshtaria emphasized that Saakashvili doesn’t make any decisions in the process of negotiations.
The 4-point plan presented by the opposition back in December said:
Option 1. Schedule new elections in 2021;
Option 2: Prime Minister appoints a plebiscite on the conduct of the 2021 parliamentary elections. The plebiscite should be held with the question: "Should early parliamentary elections be held in the fall of 2021, along with local elections." Answer options: "Yes" and "No".
The idea of holding a plebiscite on the issue of early elections is not shared by government officials. The parliamentary majority is still focusing on the work of the Commission for the Study of Election Violations, saying that they will agree to hold early elections if the commission finds violations.
Part of the opposition bloc who won seats in the 10th convocation of the Georgian Parliament have been demanding repeat elections since the October 31, 2020 race. They have accused the Georgian Dream ruling party of fabricating the elections and took to the street again last week shortly after the arrest of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party head Nika Melia (for his refusal to pay bail).
