Thousands Rally Against Georgia’s Once Popular President

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Thousands Rally Against Georgia’s Once Popular President
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: November 3, 2007

TBILISI, Georgia, Nov. 2 — Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on the capital of Georgia on Friday, demanding Parliamentary elections for early next year and venting dissatisfaction with the country’s once enormously popular government.

The rally, organized by a loose coalition of opposition parties, presented the strongest domestic political challenge thus far to President Mikheil Saakashvili, who rose to office after peaceful protests swept away the country’s post-Soviet old guard four years ago.
(snip)

Mr. Saakashvili, a lawyer educated at Columbia University, has steered his post-Soviet country sharply toward the West, seeking admission to NATO and the European Union, while moving against corruption at home, especially in the police.

He has often said he hoped to model his country’s development after the experience of the Eastern European countries that were once under the Kremlin’s yoke, and to bring democracy and free markets to the Caucasus, a region with a history of corrupt, brutal and autocratic governments.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/world/europe/03georgia.html?hp

[daninthemoon]

1. I'm so dumb. I was afraid someone was mad at Jimmy Carter.

[Judi Lynn]

2. You never really know! His life's in the hands of the corporate media!

If he offends the powers that be enough, they can lay a poison story on him and we're off to the races!

http://vwt.d2g.com:8081/vwt.jpg

[Devlzown]

3. delete

[struggle4progress]

4. Thousands of protesters call on Georgian president to resign

11-03-2007, 15h28
TBILISI (AFP)

Georgia's opposition called on President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign on Saturday as thousands of anti-government protesters rallied for a second day in the capital Tbilisi.

At least 12,000 protesters demonstrated on Saturday, far less than the more than 50,000 who gathered on Friday but still enough to mark a serious challenge to the government.

Opposition leaders said they had added the demand for Saakashvili's resignation after he ignored their previous request that parliamentary elections be held in April instead of late next year as planned.

"In addition to our previous demands, we have a new demand: that the so-called president, Saakashvili, resign," one of the opposition's leaders, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, told the protesters gathered outside Georgia's parliament.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=200832

[struggle4progress]

5. Thousands of opposition activists in Georgian capital demand president's resignation

By Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:52 a.m. November 3, 2007

... Opposition leaders have criticized Saakashvili's proposal to hold the next parliamentary vote in late 2008, instead of earlier in the year, and at the same time to hold a presidential vote that had been scheduled for January 2009.

Saakashvili says that would save money, but opposition groups call it a ploy to hold the presidential vote before his falling popularity affects the polls.

Simmering discontent with Saakashvili came to a head in September after his former defense minister, Irakli Okruashvili, accused him of corruption and a murder plot.

The hawkish one-time Saakashvili supporter was arrested but then freed on multimillion-dollar bail after he retracted his allegations. The accusations and arrest set off large protest rallies in the Georgian capital ...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20071103-0952-georgia-protests.html

[struggle4progress]

6. Opposition’s Four Demands

Ten-party opposition coalition outlined its four major demands on October 17 and sent them to the President Saakashvili and Parliamentary Chairperson, Nino Burjanadze ...

The current Central Election Commission (CEC) is composed of certified electoral officials, who, by law, should not have any party affiliations. Opposition politicians, however, have said that the appointment of Levan Tarkhnishvili, who is believed to have close links with the ruling party, as chief of the CEC has once again demonstrated that the authorities are not willing to lessen their grip on the CEC ...

According to the current rule of election of majoritarian MPs, only that party, which garners most of the votes in a multi-mandate (ranging from two to five-mandate) constituency, will endorse all of its nominees. As an alternative to this rule, the opposition has recently proposed a rule according to which voters should cast their ballots not to a party but to an individual majoritarian MP candidate regardless of a candidate’s party affiliation.

• Release of “political prisoners” and “prisoners of conscience” ...

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=16174