Georgia: Government, Opposition Remain at Loggerheads

With parliamentary elections just a few months away, little hope is emerging for a breakthrough in an ongoing political standoff between the Georgian government and opposition. Local analysts believe that a hunger strike launched by the opposition in early March will do little to produce a political settlement. Meanwhile, opposition leaders have appealed to the international community for assistance.

Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burjanadze, who held negotiations with the opposition this winter, is the chief target of the opposition's discontent. Opposition leaders claim that Burjanadze, a key ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, has repeatedly broken agreements with them during the negotiation process, including one on an important constitutional amendment outlining a new breakdown for parliamentary representation. They demand that she resign from office.

On March 12, parliament passed a constitutional amendment that will decrease the number of parliamentary seats elected by party lists to 75 (from 100) and increase the number of first-past-the-post seats from 50 to 75. An earlier statement from the ruling United National Movement had indicated that the government would back an opposition proposal for proportional seats based on regional representation to take the place of seats elected by a majority vote. Parties will need to gain 5 percent of the vote to win a seat -- down from the previous 7 percent.

The nine opposition parties pushing for Burjanadze's resignation list the demand as one of the prerequisites for ending their hunger strike, now in its tenth day. Opposition sources and local media report that an estimated 60 people, including a dozen members of parliament, are taking part in the protest action outside of parliament and in Burjanadze's office reception area.

"She [Burjanadze] is guilty of disrupting negotiations between the authorities and the opposition, as well as of the illegal passing of constitutional amendments," coalition leader Levan Gachechiladze said during a March 16 opposition rally in front of parliament, local media reported. Gachechiladze is not taking part in the hunger strike.

The government's response to the criticism has been swift. Saakashvili lambasted the opposition before he left for a trip to Washington, D.C. on March 16, referring to the hunger strike as "un-Christian."

"I am willing to call upon the opposition - both the moderate and the radical part of it. The time has come to stand together and guard our state," he told journalists. "I am very troubled that they [opposition leaders] are resorting to what is in principle an un-Christian form of political struggle at this time.