Georgian opposition to rally on January 8
On January 6, a mass rally took place in Rike Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, a REGNUM correspondent reports. About 30,000 people took part in the protest action. The main goal of the action was, as the opposition said, to express their protest against attempts of the authorities to falsify the outcomes of the presidential election that was held on January 5 and urged to provide information to the people on how the votes distributed in reality.
As one of the leaders of the united opposition Levan Gachechiladze, who participated in the rally, told a REGNUM correspondent, if the government “shows any objectiveness, it must acknowledge inevitability of the run-off.”
“Be the presidential election held in Georgia without facts of fraud, the opposition candidate, Levan Gachechiladze would have won in the first round. Now that the election has already happened, summed data of the protocols from the polling stations, copies of which our supporters have, gives us grounds to state that there must be a run-off. Results of counting the protocols for each presidential contender mean that none of them gained more than 50% of the votes needed for the victory in the first round. I do not have more precise information with me now, but I can state approximately: candidate from the ruling party Mikhail Saakashvili earned about 40% of the votes, Levan Gachechiladze about 30,” David Zurabishvili said. He noted that the protest rally was covered only by Kavkasia TV from all the Georgian TV-channels. “No wonder. It confirms once again that the authorities are afraid of truth,” he said. The protest action was held peacefully, without any accidents. During the rally, police task force was mobilized near the territory close to the State Chancellery, however, no law enforcers appeared in Rike Square.
As Levan Gachechiladze announced at the rally, on January 7, the day of Orthodox Christmas, there will be no rallies or manifestations. On January 8, the protest action will be resumed.
15:58 01/06/2008
COMMENT ON THIS NEWS ! (please, do not use "http://")
