Christian-Democratic Party Leader Shows Skepticism to Parliament Boycott
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 23 May.'08 / 00:22

Giorgi Targamadze, the leader of Christian-Democratic Party, hinted his party was skeptical about boycotting the new parliament.

The newly set up party, led by former Imedi TV anchor Targamadze, has garnered up to 8.5% of votes in the May 21 parliamentary elections and is expected to endorse about seven candidates in the new 150-seat legislative body, which will be again dominated by the ruling party, according to the early official results.

Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of New Rights Party – part of the nine-party bloc – said that boycotting of the new parliament was one of the options to challenge “the bloody, aggressive, criminal and the most fraudulent elections ever held in Georgia.”

Labor Party leader, Shalva Natelashvili, whose party received about 7% of votes, said he was ready to give up mandates in the parliament if two other opposition groups (the nine-party bloc and Christian-Democratic Party), which also cleared 5% threshold, would also boycott the new parliament.

Speaking in the late-night political talk show, Primetime, aired by Rustavi 2 TV on May 22, Giorgi Targamadze said “the issue of boycotting has turned out to be unpromising in Georgia.”

Although he did not say directly that his party was against of the boycott, he said his party was also responsible towards those thousands of voters who cast their ballot to the Christian-Democratic Party.

“We have been given these [parliamentary mandates] by 200,000 of our voters, who cast their ballot for us and tasked us with implementation of concrete steps,” Targamadze said.

Meanwhile, Davit Usupashvili, the leader of the Republican Party, which has failed to clear 5% election threshold, said his party would have boycotted the new parliament, because the current election results were “totally falsified.”

He also said that his party had a concrete action plan, which he planned to discuss with other opposition parties.

Usupashvili declined to elaborate details of the plan, but he said if implemented repeat parliamentary elections would be held no later than next spring.

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