I think we saw this coming...
Opposition supporters broke into Georgia’s Parliament on Saturday and took it over, scuffling with lawmakers and forcing President Eduard Shevardnadze to flee as thousands of protesters outside demanded his resignation. Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili led hundreds of his supporters as they shoved their way into the chamber, overturning desks and chairs and leaping onto the speaker’s podium, just after the president convened the body. "The velvet revolution has taken place in Georgia," Saakashvili said, as the hall applauded him. "We are against violence."
| "Most of the time, anyway." |
The takeover of Parliament throws into doubt the rule of Shevardnadze, the ex-Soviet republic’s leader since 1992. The country has slid into its biggest political crisis in years after Nov. 2 parliamentary elections, which the opposition and many foreign observers including the United States claimed were rigged. The 75-year-old Shevardnadze was hustled out of the chamber and then the parliament building by his bodyguards. "I will not resign. I will resign when the presidential term expires, according to the constitution," Shevardnadze said before he was driven away from the parliament, accompanied by armed guards in riot gear.
| "Feet, don't fail me now!" |
But the opposition appeared in control of the legislature. One demonstrator clutching a rose stood on the podium and pounded a gavel, drinking from a bottle before smashing it on the floor. Saakashvili ordered all pro-government lawmakers out of the building, prompting some scuffling. He then handed over the podium to opposition leader Nino Burdzhanadze, who was the speaker in the last parliament. "We tried not to allow what has happened, but Shevardnadze has lost all the chances of peaceful negotiations," Burdzhanadze said. The takeover came after at least two weeks of daily street protests by opposition supporters. Before Shevardnadze opened Parliament, tens of thousands of opposition supporters packed the capital’s Freedom Square and other streets, kicking an effigy of Shevardnadze and toting placards reading, "Your century was the 20th. Now it is the 21st." They vowed not to leave the streets until Shevardnadze is ousted. "We are giving the president one last chance," Saakashvili told them. "Within one hour, either he comes to the people or the people will come to him."
| "Like they came for Ceaucescu!" |
Before the takeover, Shevardnadze criticized the opposition on Saturday for calling for civil disobedience. Speaking to journalists in Parliament, he offered a dialogue, but "without any ultimatums. Parliament was elected and ... parliament should begin work today." As tension escalated, Shevardnadze appeared to soften his position. He acknowledged that there had been some problems with the election, which the pro-Shevardnadze party won according to the official results. "About 8 to 10 percent of the ballots were invalid," he said, but added that this should be dealt with in the courts. He then convened the new parliament amid tight security. Police, covered in body armor and holding shields, were posted in front of all the main government buildings. But as Shevardnadze was speaking, opposition supporters stormed through the chamber doors. Television broadcasts showed demonstrators overturning desks and chairs as they ran up to the podium.
| Doesn't look like the cops bothered to stop them... |
On Friday, the U.S. State Department called on Georgia’s government to conduct an independent investigation into the results. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the poll results reflected "massive vote fraud" in some regions and "do not accurately reflect the will of the Georgian people." Russia, which remains a key power in the region, also acknowledged that the election war marred and called for the "mistakes to be corrected, but in the realm of the law." "The alternative is chaos," the Russian Foreign Ministry warned.
| He means what they have now... |
Georgia’s top security official also acknowledged Friday that the vote which independent exit pollers said the opposition appeared to have won was tarnished by fraud. Security Council Secretary Tedo Dzhaparidze, a former ambassador to the United States, said the new parliament should only be considered temporary, sitting until a new vote can be held. According to final results, the pro-Shevardnadze For a New Georgia bloc finished first with 21.3 percent of the vote, while the Revival party, which sometimes has been critical of the government but sided with Shevardnadze in the present crisis, finished second with 18.8 percent. Saakashvili’s National Movement came in a very close third with 18 percent of the vote, while the Democrats who allied with Saakashvili got 8.8 percent. The Labor party had 12 percent. Shevardnadze helped end the Cold War peacefully as Soviet foreign minister under Mikhail Gorbachev, but he has spent the last decade trying to save his mountainous country from anarchy.
Always nice to see ABC News shill for yet another tin-plated despot. |