EGN NEWS DESK
Salome Zourabichvili’s time period in workplace ends on Sunday — however Georgia’s pro-Western president says she’s not going anyplace.
Zourabichvili on Saturday joined hundreds of individuals throughout the nation forming human chains to protest in opposition to the set up of a brand new president — far-right firebrand and former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili — set to happen Sunday.
Speaking on the podcast The Rest Is Politics on Friday, Zourabichvili doubled down on her intention to not depart workplace.
“This election and therefore the inauguration of the president shouldn’t be legitimate, so I stay president, and I proceed to do my job — that’s what everyone has to know,” mentioned Zourabichvili.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze threatened Zourabichvili with jail if she doesn’t step apart for Kavelashvili. “Let’s see the place she finally ends up, behind bars or outdoors,” Kobakhidze mentioned final week.
Kavelashvili was the one candidate within the the presidential elections that came about by an electoral school dominated by the more and more authoritarian ruling party Georgian Dream. The opposition didn’t put ahead any candidates as a result of they boycotted the polling, saying the method was rigged from the beginning.
The inauguration of Kavelashvili is anticipated to additional exacerbate the deep political disaster within the South Caucasus nation that broke out after the contested Oct. 26 parliamentary election through which the pro-Russian Georgian Dream claimed a landslide victory.
The opposition events and Zourabichvili don’t acknowledge the election outcomes and declare they had been rigged. The European Parliament concluded in a decision that the election was not honest and should be rerun, however the bloc’s try and sanction Georgian Dream officers was blocked by a Hungarian and Slovak veto.
The protests which have unfold throughout the nation for the reason that October vote escalated after the Georgian authorities in Tbilisi determined to droop EU membership negotiations.
In a transfer encouraging for protesters, the U.S. on Friday sanctioned oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, the chairman of Georgian Dream, “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic way forward for Georgia for the advantage of the Russian Federation.”
U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson on Friday invited Zourabichvili to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump because the “solely reputable chief in Georgia.”
