Georgia's Parliamentary Minority Halts Works

Georgia's parliamentary minority leader, David Bakradze, told journalists on November 8 that his faction has suspended work in protest against recent government actions.

Bakradze said that all lawmakers of the United National Movement party, led by President Mikheil Saakashvili, had left the parliament.

He called a tax audit of Georgian Public Television "pressure on the mass media."

He also said the arrest of Georgian armed forces chief Giorgi Kalandadze signaled the intention of the country's new government to remove the military leader from his post.

Saakashvili's party became the parliamentary minority after it was defeated by current Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition in the parliamentary elections on October 1.

Based on reporting by apsny.ge and Interfax