Tbilisi – Leaders of the Georgian opposition voiced anger at Levan Tarhinishvili, Head of the Central Committee of Election, on accusations against letting embezzlement and infraction of rules occur through the January 5 presidential elections in Georgia.
Leval Gechechiladze, who is leading the United Opposition Movement, made his way into Tarhinishvili’s office and pressed Tarhinishvili for resignation. "At least 500,000 votes that went to me just disappeared," said Gachechiladze when he argued that the elections were cheated. After Gachechiladze accused Tarhinishvili of compromising on the election cheat, he asked Tarhinisvili the question of why the Georgian people were barred from knowing the actual results.
Gachechiladze vowed to go on a hunger strike to protest the election outcome. "I will keep fighting until Mikheil Saakashvili and Nino Burcanadze kill me," he said. Gachechiladze was reported to be accompanied by some leading members of the United Opposition when he was in Tarhinishvili’s office. Tarhinishvili turned down the demand for his resignation because he said that he had been appointed to his post not by the opposition but by the parliament.
Tarhinishvili called on the opposition leaders to leave his office. Giorgi Tortladze, another opposition leader, said that he had two different versions of the election result from one same region. Tina Hidasheli, who is leading the opposition Republican Party, said that the votes that went to Mikheil Saakashvili were forged. Salome Zurabishvili, head of the Georgian Path Party and former Foreign Minister, said that the opposition would succeed in documenting proof for forgery in the elections and get the second stage of elections done.
Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili won 52 percent of the votes on January 5. (Agency Caucasus)
