Thousands of people in Sakartvele demanded new elections

The main street of the capital, Tbilisi, has been turned into a sea of ​​flags as protesters gather in the parliament building.

Sakartvel’s ruling party “Sakartwell’s Dream”, led by Bidzina Ivanishvili, categorically denies the accusations that on October 31. parliamentary elections in which his party gained a two percent lead were rigged.

However, all opposition parties in the country have refused to work in the new parliament, which is concerned about the new political crisis in the country, where accusations of falsification of results and mass demonstrations often follow.

In the run-up to the elections, the opposition parties demonstrated unprecedented unity: the United National Movement, led by former President Mikheil Saakashvili, agreed with smaller opposition groups to form a coalition government if the elections were won.

“We demand a change in the completely discredited electoral administration and a new vote,” Salome Samadashvili, one of the party’s leaders, told AFP. “It would keep the country stable.”

According to her, Sakartwell’s dream did not receive a democratic mandate to remain in power.

For his part, Prime Minister Gartgi Gacharia said the election marked “another important historic moment in Sartwell’s democratic development” and criticized the opposition for staging mass protests against the rampant coronavirus.

The prime minister himself has recently been diagnosed with coronavirus, which is why he has been in isolation for a week. The curfew begins in the country on Monday.

The official results of the October 31 elections show that nine political forces have entered parliament, including the ruling Sakartwell Dream, who has won the most votes, and eight opposition parties. The opposition accuses the authorities of falsifying the election results and refuses to accept the seats of deputies in protest.

Saakashvili, a charismatic reformer who came to power during the 2003 Pink Revolution, was forced to flee Sakartwell at the end of his second term in 2013, fearing arrest on charges of abuse of power by prosecutors.

He now lives in Ukraine and has been appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky to chair the Executive Reform Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine.