The New Rights Party said its seven lawmakers would only stop their hunger strike if Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze resigned.

“This is our major demand,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Rights Party and one of the hunger strikers, told journalists on March 17. “As for our other demands [related to the upcoming parliamentary elections], we will be able to continue dialogue on them with her [Burjanadze’s] replacement.”

Burjanadze told reporters on March 17 that it was “not serious” to demand the resignation of the parliamentary chairperson just eight weeks before the expiration of the authority of the sitting parliament.

MP Gamkrelidze ruled out the possibility of dialogue with Burjanadze, who he described as “a liar.”