TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian opposition’s boycott of parliament after the October 31 election is in doubt, after one of the parties indicated they will break off the boycott.
Aleko Elisashvili, leader of the Citizens party, said Wednesday that he will announce the party’s decision to take up their two seats in parliament in a few days.
“If we manage to snatch from Georgian Dream what’s important for us, we will certainly enter the parliament. We will announce the decision in a few days,” Alexander (Aleko) Elisashvili, the leader of the Citizens party, said on Wednesday.
The opposition parties that refused to recognize the results of the October 31 elections and vowed to boycott parliament have lately been engaged in a series of conflicts, where Elisashvili confronted the rest and accused some of them of artificially aggravating the political crisis.
“Both I and our party have finished talking about this “circus” which is going on in the opposition. We have been talking to the opposition for so long and they do not know what they want,” he said, dubbing his colleagues “disordered”.
Elisashvili says his main demand is reform of the electoral system and the election administration, and if Georgian Dream agrees, he will most likely take up his seat in parliament. His party won two seats in the election.
This has irritated other opposition parties. Some of them suspect Elisashvili secretly colluded with the ruling party. European Georgia leader Giga Bokeria said Elisashvili was in fact “excluded from the opposition.”
After the October 31 election, which was assessed as satisfactory by international observers, all eight opposition parties which passed the one percent threshold refused to accept the results, complaining of mass rigging and demanded to hold another election. Otherwise, they threatened to boycott the parliament.
After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations facilitated by US and EU diplomats, most opposition parties have annulled their party lists and officially renounced their mandates. The first sitting of parliament was attended by only GD MPs with nobody from the opposition flank present.
Despite ideological disagreements and personal grudge, until recently eight opposition parties that crossed the election threshold have managed to maintain the boycott. A few days ago, several members of the conservative Alliance of Patriots electoral list made their announcement to enter parliament, although the party’s political leaders keep on boycotting.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.