Saakashvili to public: it’s better to focus of run-offs, than on my beforehand mourning

Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1 and has been on hunger strike in prison for 10 days, has called on the public to ‘focus on election runoffs on October 30 rather than to mourn me beforehand.’ 

 

In a letter read by Saakashvili’s lawyer earlier today, the ex-president claims that the ruling Georgian Dream party aims to spark nihilism in the public ahead of the second round of elections ‘which we must not allow.’ 

 

Saakashvili’s doctors and lawyers say that the ex-president’s health condition has worsened due to hunger strike, which has been dismissed by the Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia. 

 

His mother and sons were allowed earlier today to see Saakashvili in Rustavi prison No.12. 

 

“It is important that we have been allowed to see our father. The family’s priority is to see Misha free and healthy,” Eduard Saakashvili said. 

 

The mayoral runoffs will take place in Georgia in 20 of 64 election constituencies. 

 

In 17 of 20 constituencies the candidates of the ruling party and the Saakashvili’s United National Movement opposition will compete. 

 

The UNM expected that the ruling party would not receive 43 percent of the vote in the proportional part of the elections and the GD would have to accept the holding of repeat parliamentary elections per the EU-mediated agreement in April 2021. 

 

However, the GD received almost 47 percent of the vote. 

 

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013, shortly after the Georgian Dream coalition defeated his United National Movement in the 2012 parliamentary race.

 

 He claims he returned after eight years to mobilize his supporters ahead of the October 2 municipal elections and ‘save the country from the regime of the Georgian Dream’ via snap parliamentary race. 

 

 Saakashvili was convicted for abuse of authority back in 2018 in absentia and was  sentenced to six years in prison. He has also been charged with four other cases, which are ongoing.

 

Both he and the UNM call on voters to take to the streets on October 14 and actively participate in runoffs.