TOL Georgia

Hunger strike continues

March 23rd, 2008 by jibs

It has been two weeks since a part of the Georgian opposition has started hunger strike in front of the Georgian Parliament. The opposition has a long list of demands it wants to see satisfied — anything from repeat presidential elections to resignation of interior minister. The authorities on the other hand claim that they are ready for a dialogue, but not for ultimatums.

In fact, the opposition presented its list of demands at the end of January. Satisfaction of these demands was seen as a precondition to hold free and fair parliamentary elections in May.

Except for a few partial agreements, the authorities have largely snubbed this text, saying that it was a list of ultimatums. Instead, a response memorandum was issued by the authorities, which presented their side of the story and promised to compromise on some issues “in case the agreement was reached with the opposition”.

One such proposal was the election code: initially, the authorities included in their response memorandum willingness to adopt a regional proportional election system backed by the opposition. Later constitutional amendments were adopted by ruling party, which not only breached the earlier proposal, but even further diminished the oppositions’ chances to enter the parliament with a significant proportion. For background on elections code changes read here.

Since there was no agreement, the authorities reserved the right to withdraw their own proposals. After this, the opposition went on hunger strike.

On the 12th day of the hunger strike, the Georgian Patriarch intervened to mediate the conflict. He called on the opposition to end the hunger strike and urged the authorities to take steps towards defusing the crisis. The opposition suspended all demands except for one: the rule of electing 75 majoritarian MPs would of multi-mandate constituencies, instead of single-mandate consistencies.

The oppositions’ compromise was rejected as yet another ultimatum. Moreover, the opposition was accused of putting ultimatums to the patriarch himself.

One way or another, the hunger strike continues with several people already in critical condition. Many have been hospitalized. In the meantime the authorities point to their readiness to continue talks, even on the background of unilateral steps taken to aggravate the situation.

Amidst the crisis, one interesting proposal emerged from radical Labor Party — to boycott the May elections as the authorities lack the will to hold elections in free and fair environment. This proposal might in fact gain popularity if the Georgian authorities continue to hold their principled position. And that would be a lose-lose situation for everyone.

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