Saakashvili's party will not attend presidential inauguration ceremony
TBILISI. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Members of the former Georgian ruling party United National Movement led by the outgoing president, Mikheil Saakashvili, will not attend the new president's inauguration ceremony on November 17, Giga Bokeria, a former secretary of the National Security Council and one of the United National Movement party leaders, said on Rustavi-2 television channel on Friday evening.
"We deem it impossible to attend the inauguration ceremony," Bokeria said, explaining this by the political situation taking place in the country.
Bokeria admitted that "an inauguration ceremony is part of a tradition, and the presence of political opponents at it is always desirable." However, "a paradoxical situation has taken place" in Georgia, he said.
"While our presidential candidate David Bakradze conceded his defeat in the elections and displayed political culture by congratulating his rival and offering him cooperation, the newly-elected president [Giorgi Margvelashvili, a candidate from the ruling coalition Georgian Dream], said he was not going to cooperate with the opposition on domestic policy issues," Bokeria said.
"As a rule, it is always difficult for the defeated to be benevolent, but it is the victor who is envenomed in this case," Bokeria said.
"This is a disaster, not to mention that some members of our party are being held in detention, among them the secretary general [Vano Merabishvili], [former Defense Minister] Bacho Akhalaya and about 100 other people who have been charged with various counts," he said.
"Openly declared reprisals are ongoing, and this all is happening against the background of their [the Georgian Dream coalition's] decisive victory, he said.
