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Georgian Protesters Demand President's Resignation


Georgian Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili
Georgian Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili
TBILISI -- Hundreds of demonstrators in Tbilisi have demanded the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili, RFE/RL's Georgian and Russian services report.

The protest was organized by the opposition Labor Party led by Shalva Natelashvili. It coincided with the fourth anniversary of the violent dispersal of an opposition demonstration by police.

Natelashvili told the gathering on November 7 that "there is no need to get ready for the parliamentary elections scheduled for next year, because the current regime can be changed only via protest actions."

The demonstrators also protested plans by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili to form an opposition movement.

Labor Party Executive Secretary Paata Jibladze told RFE/RL that it was Ivanishvili who financially supported the police and even paid bonuses to the police special units that dispersed the opposition protest action in Tbilisi four years ago.

Labor Party activists say Ivanishvili has no moral right to call himself an opposition leader.

Press spokesmen for Ivanishvili's Cartu Group have consistently rejected earlier unsubstantiated allegations by the Labor Party of collusion between Ivanishvili and Saakashvili.

Read more in Russian here
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