09 January 2008, 00:43
Georgian opposition starts long-term protest actions
Today, Levan Gachechiladze, candidate for President of Georgia from opposition, and his supporters start a hunger strike in front of the Public TV building in Tbilisi with a demand to hold the second round of the election.
Apart from the demand to go on with the presidential election, the opposition wants to have permanent access to live TV broadcasting.
"I address Saakashvili and Burdzhanadze: you'll have to kill me. So far that I'm alive, I'll not stop," the BBC quotes Gachechiladze's presentation shown by the "Rustavi-2" TV Channel.
All the supporters of Levan Gachechiladze are same resolute. They intend to go on with their protest action despite the current strong frost and cold weather in Georgia (under weather forecasts, within the next few days the temperature can drop down to minus 25 degrees Centigrade), and declare that the hunger strike is only the first and warning step, the "Echo Moskvy" Radio broadcasts.
Should the authorities of Georgia fail to fulfil the demands of the united opposition, its leader Gachechiladze promises to bring up to 100,000 citizens to the streets of the city. The oppositionists have stated that mass protest rallies will begin at midday on January 13 with a meeting in the Republic Square in Tbilisi.
The "Caucasian Knot" has already informed that yesterday Georgian oppositionists expressed their protest against the election outcomes announced by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia by storming the office of the CEC Chair Levan Tarkhnishvili demanding his resignation. Levan Gachechiladze has accused the Georgian CEC of violent falsification of the election totals and has promised that the Commission "will incur punishment for their actions."
