Erosi Kitsmarishvili, political secretary of the opposition Georgian Party, said on Thursday that “very serious” rallies would start on May 9 in the Kakheti region with an aim “to swiftly change the Saakashvili’s regime.”

“The first protest rally is planned in Kakheti on May 9 – on the day of victory over fascism,” he told a Georgian internet portal Palitra TV. “We are beginning a campaign to change this regime.”

He said that rallies would be held in the capital city Tbilisi and “throughout Georgia”; he also said that there would be targeted protest rallies on various issues.

“The protest rallies will be of small and large scales and very diverse,” Kitsmarishvili said.

Nino Burjanadze, the leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia, together with the Burjanadze-backed movement People’s Assembly, announced earlier this week that they would launch protest rallies beginning on May 21, also with a goal to force President Saakashvili to resign. Burjanadze and some leaders of the Georgian Party became engaged in a confrontation late last year making their cooperation so far impossible.

Asked about planned protest rallies by Burjanadze and People’s Assembly, Kitsmarishvili responded: “Whether we will join them or they will join us, that would be decided in the near future.”

“We respect any group’s attempt to change this regime,” Kitsmarishvili said, adding that it would be impossible to bring that change without the Georgian Party.

Kitsmarishvili said on May 3 that the Georgian Party’s goal was “to put an end to Saakashvili’s regime this year.”