TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has a clear message to President Mikheil Saakashvili: If you want to dismiss the government and announce a new election for parliament, go ahead and see what happens.

Ivanishvili said he would welcome a new election right now. “Let’s ask people, and people will respond to the criticism of our government,” the prime minister said Wednesday as he met with editors and chairs of TV companies and newspapers at his business center.

By the end of March, parliament adopted a constitution amendment which modified how the president might go about if he wants to dissolve parliament and government. Before the amendment, the president could hand pick a caretaker government after dissolving parliament and government and announcing a new election; now the president may still dissolve parliament and government, but he will not have the right to appoint the members of a caretaker government. Instead, the existing government will continue until a new government has been approved after the election.

The amendment was passed in parliament with the support of Mikheil Saakashvili’s party members. UNM members claim that the president doesn’t plan to dissolve either government or parliament, but discussion is continuing about whether Saakashvili will use his right.

Ivanishvili discussed this issue at the beginning of today’s meeting and said that the major thing is that ‘people returned its legitimate rights.’

“We only welcome if the president uses this right,” he said. “Let’s ask people, and people will respond to the criticism of our government. The president is deprived of rights he appropriated, and now there is political stability in the country. We no longer fear a political crisis.”

“Let’s ask people, and people will respond to the criticism of our government.