PRAGUE -- Former Georgian parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze says that a referendum on early presidential elections, which opposition groups hope will oust President Mikheil Saakashvili, is "a road to nowhere" because everyone knows the results would "likely be falsified."
Burjanadze, the founder of the opposition Democratic Movement-United Georgia party, is considered a possible successor to Saakashvili.
Burjanadze told RFE/RL's Russian Service on February 26 that because the president hasn't learned from the country's war with Russia in August and the administration is "unable to analyze its own mistakes," she decided it is "necessary to save the country."
Saakashvili has seen his popularity fall as dissatisfaction grows over his handling of the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which led to the war with Russia.