Georgiy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
An appeal for the immediate resignation of President Saakashvili resulted in a serious political process that could have far-reaching consequences for the country: already one million signatures have been collected. The initiator of the "signature campaign", the former governor of Imeretia and leader of the "White Party" Timur Shashiashvili, said at a rally near the presidential palace that from January 20th Mikhail Saakashvili will no longer be considered athe legitimate president. However, according to the current Constitution the next presidential elections will take place in October, which means that Saakashvili will remain the head of state for another 10 months.
The legal collision has roots in mass protests that took place in November 2007. Back then Saakashvili resigned and called for early presidential elections on January 5th 2008. However, supporters of former governor Shashiashvili insist that on January 20, five years after his inauguration came to an end, Saakashvili may be declared "illegal." The President may try to take revenge, using his constitutional right to dismiss the current parliament in April and call early parliamentary elections in October of the same year.
However, Saakashvili's supporters (and there are still a lot of them) have started to collect signatures for a manifesto "Mikhail Saakashvili is our president", which states that Saakashvili should remain president until October.
VK has talked to representatives of the two "camps."
Timur Shashiashvili, former governor of Imeretia, the chairman of the "White Party"
If Saakashvili does not fulfil the demands of people by January 20th and does not resign on January 21st we will begin to act based on the Constitution and the law. The Constitution states that the President of Georgia is elected for a 5-year period. On January 21st, Saakashvili will not be the legitimate president any more. We will not allow him to take dangerous steps to dismiss the government and dissolve the parliament. We are warning the Georgian public that our country will face new shocks under the rule of Saakashvili. Therefore, our task is to protect the Constitution, to protect the country from a new disaster, to thank Mikheil Saakashvili for the five years or ten years of his rule and remind him that, regardless of different attitudes to his presidency, the Constitution explicitly states that the president is elected for five years. The five years expire on the day of the inauguration, on January 20th. If Saakashvili had the slightest sense of honour and dignity, then after what he did to the country he would have resigned a long time ago and would not show up in public.
We have laid down an ultimatum to Saakashvili, consisting of eight articles with a detailed description of his crimes and the situation in the country at the end of his presidency. All documents have been sent to the Venice Commission. Very soon nobody will consider Saakashvili to be the Georgian President, regardless of how much he travels around the world.
When an appeal to resign is signed by such people as Chabua Amirejibi, Merab Berdzenishvili, Rezo Chkheidze and the Georgian intelligentsia and you are still clinging to power, it means you simply have not a single mite of conscience. Otherwise, he would have apologized for everything and resigned forthwith.
However, Saakashvili is glued to his chair. He celebrated New Year in Afghanistan and announced it in advance. That is, he endangered the lives of Georgian soldiers while promoting his visit. Name me at least one president in the world who announces his visit to a war zone in advance! He himself is protected, but he does not care about what is going to happen to the soldiers... There has never been such an audacious and unscrupulous ruler in the history of Georgia.
As for the constitution saying that presidential elections are held in October, yes, there is such a conflict. However, it can be solved by appointing an interim president in the period from January 21st until October. Such a practice takes place in many countries. Our goal is to prevent Saakashvili from dismissing the government and parliament in April, that is, to carry out the summer program that he has in mind: to appoint a new government and to instruct it to hold new parliamentary elections. But the Georgian people will never allow it and is going to say: "starting from January 21st, Saakashvili is no longer our president."
Levan Cholokashvili (one of the leaders of the NGO coalition "For a European Georgia")
Our supporters are also collecting signatures in support of the manifesto "Mikhail Saakashvili is our president." I do not think that the main factor is the number of signatures. Shashiashvili has said that he had collected one million signatures, but only a few dozen people took part in his rally near the presidential palace. These people have nostalgia for the past. We do not intend to compete with them.
Saakashvili must complete his rule in time, that is, after the presidential elections scheduled for October. He is a young, energetic man who has grown up before our eyes and done a lot of good things for the country. At the moment he is at the peak of his political and human maturity and he has every right to stay in politics, despite the fact that he has made a lot of mistakes. He should be able to fix these mistakes by returning to politics after the presidential election in any status.
