The main opposition presidential candidate, Levan Gachechiladze, said he met with his rival, incumbent, Mikheil Saakashvili, on January 9 and told him that he would not step back in his drive to have the run-off.
Speaking live in a late-night political talk show, Primetime, aired by the Rustavi 2 on January 10, Gachechiladze said: “I met yesterday Saakashvili, because I am concerned with the fate of my country and explained him that it is absolutely inadmissible to have a confrontation between the authorities and people.”
Gachechiladze also said that acting president, Nino Burjanadze, “played a key role” in arranging this meeting.
“We had no concrete conversation; I have only stressed [during the meeting] on how to prevent civil confrontation,” Gachechiladze said. “I said that risk of tensions and instability was high in case of injustice.”
He declined to further elaborate other details of the meeting, however, said that he was not going to cooperate with Saakashvili because of “persisting injustice.”
When speaking about “injustice,” he was referring to the opposition’s allegations that the election results were manipulated, including through falsifying vote summary protocols.
Gachechiladze said that the only way out of the current situation was to hold the run-off.
"I will be the first who will congratulate Saakashvili if he wins the second round, but he has no right to assume presidency after the first tour," he said. “I call on supporters to gather on the Republic Square [in downtown Tbilisi] on January 13 at 2 pm to protest against this injustice. There is no other way. We can not tolerate injustice.”
He also said that he was ready to assume responsibility for future developments and added that “it is absolutely inadmissible to return back” in early 90s when Georgia was engulfed in civil confrontation. “But I want to say that persisting injustice is a major source of confrontation and Georgia is currently on the verge of this civil confrontation, so injustice should be stopped,” Gachechiladze said.
He said he also met with other opposition candidates: Davit Gamkrelidze, Shalva Natelashvili and Irina Sarishvili. Gachechiladze said meeting with tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili was not planned. “He has made too many mistakes and his is no longer counted,” Gachechiladze said about Patarkatsishvili, who was formally charged on January 10 by prosecutors with plotting a coup and terrorist act.
Meanwhile, all four candidates, with whom Gachechiladze met, have joined calls for the run-off claiming that the election results were manipulated by the authorities to secure the incumbent candidate outright victory in the first round.
