Saakashvili Calls On Opposition MPs to Leave Parliament

By Khatia Bzhalava

Tuesday, November 2

“Parliament has already lost the function of a government platform. No decision can and will not be made there,” ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s letter reads.

According to the official results of the Central Election Commission (CEC) for the 2021 municipal election run-offs in Georgia, the ruling Georgian Dream party mayoral candidates have won in 19 municipalities, while the United National Movement (UNM) candidate has won in just one.

Following the municipal election run-offs on October 30, former President Mikheil Saakashvili has sent a letter from prison noting that he is ‘very angry and insulted.’ According to him, the UNM won the elections, and ‘the group of bandits’ stole the victory from them.

As the ex-president notes in the letter, the only thing that can be done is to “seize power and make them accountable before the law.” According to him, the result of such ‘catastrophic’ observational reports must be appealed and Georgian people should take to the streets and demand snap elections.

Saakashvili has praised the decision of Lelo Leader Mamuka Khazaradze, who announced on Sunday that he was leaving parliament and would continue fighting in the streets. The ex-president called on his comrades to do what Khazaradze did and reject their parliamentary mandates, since “the parliament has already lost the function of a government platform.”

As it became known yesterday, several MPs, including the leader of the Girchi - More Freedom party Zurab Japaridze and members of the United National Movement faction Nona Mamulashvili, Ana Tsitlidze, and Levan Varshalomidze have also decided to leave the parliament. One of the leaders of For Georgia party Natia Mezvrishvili has stated that leaving mandates and moving processes to the streets can only be beneficial to the Georgian Dream. According to her, the radicalism of the UNM helps the ruling party to maintain power.

As for the ex-president’s health condition, his lawyers, as well as his girlfriend, the Rada MP, Lisa Yasko, claim that Saakashvili’s health is deteriorating amid being on hunger strike for almost a month and he requires ‘quality medical care’, which, as they say, can only be provided at the civil clinic.

Nika Gvaramia, the lawyer of the former president and director of the opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi announced yesterday that the government plans to transfer Saakashvili to Gori hospital, “where he will be abducted by the so-called Ossetian special forces.” According to another lawyer Beka Basilaia, the government wishes to hand over Saakashvili to the Russian Special Services.

Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1, a day before Georgian municipal elections, and he has been on hunger strike since. The opposition believes that the elections were rigged and has announced rallies in all big cities of Georgia, demanding the annulment of municipal election results and the release of the third president of Georgia.