Georgia: Opposition Coalition Starts to Splinter

A mass protest held in Tbilisi on May 26, Georgia's Independence Day, may mark the end of opposition unity in the fight against President Mikheil Saakashvili.

After drumming up roughly 60,000 protesters from throughout Georgia to gather in Tbilisi's Dinamo stadium, opposition leaders, standing on a makeshift podium, appeared to argue frantically about what step to take next.

Some leaders, such as Nino Burjanadze of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia and Davit Gamkrelidze of the New Rights Party, led part of the crowd to the central railroad station to block railway traffic. The blockade, which ran for roughly three hours, was lifted in the early hours of May 27. A passenger train to the western port city of Batumi was canceled after protesters blocked the tracks.

Irakli Alasania, the moderate leader of the Alliance for Georgia, which includes the New Rights Party, said that he would not participate in the opposition's latest planned tactic -- blocking highways and railways.

The National Forum, another member of the opposition front, led its supporters out of makeshift prison cells that have been pitched on Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue since April 9, Interpressnews agency reported on May 27. Freedom Party leader Konstantine Gamsakhurdia announced he also plans to leave the opposition coalition.

As party leaders reconvened for deliberations on May 27, Nino Burjanadze tried to allay concerns that the May 26 demonstration was the opposition's last hurrah. "[T]he fight didn't finish yesterday," she told reporters. "The fight will become much fiercer than it was before."