Opposition coalition launches election campaign

The nine-party opposition coalition launched its election campaign yesterday, which representatives said would focus on unseating a “criminal” government.

Levan Gachechiladze, a leader of the coalition, said it was beginning a “liberation movement” to free the state institutions that have been “conquered” by the government.

“This will be our election movement for liberating Georgia from those who have managed to conquer Georgia through violent methods,” he said.

In contrast, the ruling party has made eliminating poverty in Georgia the focus of their rhetoric in the run-up to parliamentary elections, which are slated for May 21.

The opposition coalition has opted for an aggressive attack on the government, which they refuse to recognize as legitimate after the disputed presidential election in January.

“It is not a fight between political opponents but it is the people’s fight against criminal authorities,” Koka Guntsadze told journalists yesterday.

Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights, said the coalition would no longer boycott two television stations they have accused of pro-government bias.

“I want to declare for each journalist and for media that our [coalition] headquarters’ door is open for them in spite of some journalists’ aggression… We are ready to give comments and information to everyone,” he said.

Last month the opposition coalition began a boycott of Rustavi 2 and Mze TV, with Conservative MP Kakha Kukava stating they would only allow live interviews to be broadcast by the channels due to their concern that recorded statements would be edited and taken out of context.

Yesterday, Georgia’s Way leader Salome Zourabichvili announced the opposition’s own media monitoring committee to observe media coverage during the election period, the results of which will be distributed to international organizations.

“The goal of this monitoring is to allow society to see how democratic the elections are and how much time the media allots different political figures,” Zourabichvili said.

Some television stations came under fire from the opposition in the run-up to the presidential election in January and an OSCE election monitoring report noted that both the privately-owned Rustavi 2 and Mze TV “showed clear support for [ruling party candidate Mikheil] Saakashvili and provided him with substantial prime-time news coverage.”