TBILISI, DFWatch – The largest opposition bloc in Georgia refuses to sign a code of conduct signed by other political parties, because signing it would force it to recognize the election results if the international community does so.

Friday Georgian media reported that the leader of the Georgian Dream coalition asked EU Commissioner Štefan Füle to meet with him, but a spokesperson for the Commissioner said the meeting will be held on the condition that Georgian Dream will sign the code of conduct.

But later it emerged that Ivanishvili never asked Füle to meet him.

A spokesperson for Georgian Dream says that ‘the government tries to mislead the international society.’

“We never requested that Ivanishvili should meet with Mr Füle, and accordingly, the information that we wanted to hold a meeting on September 13 is not true. I don’t know who is the source of this information,” Maia Panjikidze, spokesperson for Georgian Dream coalition told DF Watch.

Radio Liberty reported on Friday that Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to meet with Štefan Füle, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy. Their source was Peter Stano, spokesperson for Füle.

Peter Stano informed them that the EU commissioner also has a desire to meet with Bidzina Ivanishvili, but under certain circumstances.

Stano told Radio Liberty that they received a request from Ivanishvili about holding a meeting in Brussels next week.

He said Mr Füle is ready to meet him if the coalition leader promises that his party Georgian Dream will sign the code of conduct and will recognize the election results if authoritative observing organizations and first of all OSCE/ODIHR declares it legitimate.

The parliamentary election is to be held October 1. Local non-governmental organizations asked to adopt a code of conduct for political parties in order to conduct elections which comply with Western standards. The parties should follow the rules of code after signing. The agreement contained 17 points, before the government added one more point, which was unacceptable to Georgian Dream.

This point is about recognizing the election results, if international organization do so. Ivanishvili’s coalition thinks they should have an opportunity to appeal the results, because they have such a right guaranteed by the constitution. Georgian Dream says it will sign the code of conduct as it was suggested by NGOs, without the additions byt the government.

Spokesperson for Georgian Dream told DF Watch that their position is unchanged in this regard. She says the statement of Stefan Füle’s spokesperson is an attempt by the government to mislead the international community.

«It’s not excluded that someone tries to mislead others abroad as if we refuse to sign the code. I recently visited Berlin and what I learned there is that government representatives and employees of embassies in different countries report incorrect information about us very often,” Maia Panjikidze explains.

Bidzina Ivanishvili himself said the code of conduct has already been signed, and that the government has misinformed Stefan Fule.

“Irakli Alasania met with him yesterday and explained everything and they know everything well.”

Paya Panjikidze said they never asked Mr Füle to hold a meeting and it is unclear to them why such information was reported.

“I don’t think anyone appealed with such request,” she said, “I know one thing: that Füle met with Bidzina in Batumi and since then we have really good relations with Mr Füle and his colleagues. We had meetings with his representatives on different levels. Mr. Bidzina and Mr. Fule had phone conversation, but there was no talks about meeting.”

Bidzina Ivanishvili said he has no plans to go to Brussels.