TBILISI: Georgia’s richest man began talks on forming a government for the former Soviet republic yesterday and addressed fears over his links with Moscow by saying his first visit abroad would be to the United States.
Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili urged President Mikheil Saakashvili, a staunch US ally, to resign following Monday’s parliamentary election, which the president conceded his party had lost to Ivanishvili’s coalition.
But Saakashvili’s party yesterday rejected calls for him to resign.
Saakashvili had gracefully conceded a surprise defeat in Monday’s vote and promised to facilitate the formation of the next government, a rarity in an ex-Soviet region used to revolutions and autocrats who cling to their chairs.
But the opposition leader, who may himself become prime minister, called on the president to resign immediately — although he later retracted the demand which Saakashvili’s party warned could cause confrontation.
“Speaking about snap presidential polls today shows disrespect to the Georgian people and violates the constitution,” the outgoing chairman of parliament from the ruling party, David Bakradze, told a news conference.
He said he hoped it was “just an isolated incident amid euphoria caused by electoral victory” and would not lead to “crisis and confrontation”. Despite his party’s defeat, Saakashvili is due to remain in office until presidential polls in a year’s time.
Ivanishvili, 56, has made clear he plans to be prime minister, Georgia’s most powerful executive official once reforms weakening the head of state take effect after the presidential vote expected some time in 2013.
A political novice who made his fortune mainly in Russia, has acknowledged his six-party coalition is fragile and that he faces a difficult balancing act between the West and Moscow, which welcomed his election victory as a chance for better ties.
Saakashvili avidly sought Nato membership for Georgia and fought a brief war in 2008 with Russia, whose leaders portray him as unbalanced.
Ivanishvili says he wants to mend ties with Moscow and denies Saakashvili’s accusations he is a Russian stooge. “My first visit abroad will be to Washington and the United States is our main partner,” Ivanishvili told reporters yesterday.
He met leaders from his Georgian Dream coalition to discuss portfolios in a government to be formed by October 20 which he has said would include no current ministers. He has acknowledged that it could break up into three factions in parliament. Saakashvili, who has the power to veto both a cabinet line-up and future legislation, said he would not hinder Georgian Dream’s efforts to form a government but that some of its views were “fundamentally unacceptable”. He did not elaborate.
The president, who swept to power after the bloodless 2003 Rose Revolution street protests over alleged election fraud, has been accused of authoritarianism by his rivals.
His acceptance that his ruling United National Movement party will go into opposition strengthened Georgia’s democratic credentials and increased the chances of its first peaceful transfer of power between rival parties since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
“They had enough common sense to end all this peacefully and Mikheil Saakashvili conceded defeat and said he would become the opposition now,” said Merab, a Tbilisi resident who declined to give his last name. “This is very good, I only welcome this.”
Agencies
