Protesters angered by the alleged rigging of this month's national elections kept up their pressure on the government on Thursday with a sixth consecutive day of demonstrations outside the national parliament and others occupied a government building in a provincial city.
In a move likely to complicate resolving the tensions, a court on Thursday ordered a recount of ballots that gave one of the main opposition figures a seat in parliament. The Tbilisi demonstrators, whose numbers swell from hundreds during the day to thousands at night, are demanding the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze and the annulment of results from the Nov. 2 parliamentary elections. Leaders of the protests vowed Thursday they would not back down.
"There is no alternative to the resignation of Shevardnadze. We are fighting in order for us to have a future," said National Movement party leader Mikhail Saakashvili, the most tough-talking of the opposition figures.
In a sign that anger was spreading outside the capital, a group of protesters estimated at up to 200 occupied a government building in Zugdidi, about 250km west of Tbilisi, and announced they were beginning a hunger strike. They are reportedly members of a political faction led by Gurab Absandze, the finance minister under Georgia's first post-Soviet president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who was ousted in a 1992 uprising.
Saakashvili praised the Tbilisi demonstrators for keeping the protests peaceful.
"The whole world has seen that we are having a peaceful action.... No one can label us extremists, radicals, or enemies of the people," he said.
Also Thursay, Nino Burdzhanadze of the opposition Democrats, another key protest leader, was informed that a court in Kutaisi had ordered a recount of the ballots that showed she won a parliament seat.
"I have the impression that the authorities are throwing wood on the fire," she said.
Election results, still incomplete 10 days after the voting, show the pro-government bloc For a New Georgia is leading, followed by the opposition Revival party, which tends to support the government on key issues, and the more radical National Movement.
The tally has shown For a New Georgia getting only about 20 percent of the votes, but the National Movement and the smaller opposition Democrats, claim that even that result is inflated.
Meanwhile, Revival leader Aslan Abashidze flew to Moscow for a meeting yesterday with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the latest step in a flurry of activity that has prompted many in the opposition to speculate that Shevardnadze is aiming to hand over power to him.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese