Former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili says the National Movement party will move into a different 'regime of activity' as it boycotts parliament. (IPN.)

TBILISI, DFWatch — The National Movement party of President Saakashvili is boycotting parliament. Its representatives have returned to Tbilisi, saying they are moving into ‘another regime of activity’.

Vano Merabishvili, former Prime Minister and Secretary General of the party, on Thursday held a press conference evaluating the detention of Nika Gvaramina, Director of Rustavi 2 TV, and Alexandre Khetaguri, former Energy Minister.

He said the detention of the two has made his party move into a different mode of work in order to not let the country ‘return to its dark past.”

«No such case as detaining a general director of an active, serious and free media, has ever taken place in any other country, including Russia,” he said. “Alexandre Khetaguri is a symbol of overcoming energy vampire, and a person who managed to transform the dark, frozen and corrupt country of Shevardnadze into a light, warm and stable country.”


The National Movement claims the new government is unable to fulfill its election promises and therefore has to focus on putting pressure on the ‘free party.’

The National Movement will continue its activity in Tbilisi, where the executive government is located, to not allow ‘restriction on democracy and not to let the country return to the dark years of the past’.

This is the second time the National Movement party is boycotting parliament, which is located in Kutaisi in western Georgia. The first time was November 8, 2012, as a protest against the detention of former Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaia and former Chair of the Joint Staff Giorgi Kalandadze.

That boycott lasted nearly a week, upon which MPs returned to Kutaisi and continued their work in parliament.