Georgian authorities refuse to hold early parliamentary elections

No extraordinary parliamentary elections, which the opposition insists on, will be held, Irakli Kobakhidze, the Executive Secretary of the "Georgian Dream" Party, has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at a rally in Tbilisi on December 2, the oppositional association "Strength in Unity" announced that should the authorities failed to start negotiations with the opposition before the inauguration of Salome Zurabishvili as the President on December 16, a mass protest rally would be organized. The "Strength in Unity" insists, among other things, on holding extraordinary parliamentary elections.

No early parliamentary elections will be held, Irakli Kobakhidze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling "Georgian Dream-Democratic Movement" Party, has stated in his comment on the demands of the opposition.

He expressed confidence that the oppositional "United National Movement" (UNM) Party "has no resources to artificially destabilize the situation in the country." "Based thereon, we must stick to our agenda – we are preparing the inauguration and the next parliamentary elections to be held in October 2020, as the Constitution of Georgia provides for," Mr Kobakhidze has stated on air of the "Rustavi-2" TV Channel.

After the opposition has announced a protest action on the inauguration day of Salome Zurabishvili on December 16, Georgian authorities made an intrigue of the venue of this ceremony. On December 3, it became known that the city in which the inauguration would take place is only being selected, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 4, 2018 at 03:42 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.