MEP Kaljurand: Saakashvili likely to have lost his power

MEP Marina Kaljurand says that Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving his prison term after an arrest in Tbilisi on October 1, is likely to have lost his power. 

 

During an online dialogue organised by the Georgian Institute of Politics yesterday, Kaljurand said that the Georgian people have refused to take to streets per calls of the third president. 

 

Saakashvili called on voters to take to the street on October 3 to ‘defend votes’ of the October 2 municipal elections. 

 

“It was a signal for me that Saakashvili has lost his power,” Kaljurand said. 

 

Saakashvili, who is convicted in Georgia and sentenced to six years in prison, says he has returned for the municipal elections after eight years in political exile, to ‘save the country’ from the current Georgian Dream leadership. 

 

He said that winning  the  municipal elections by the United National Movement opposition, the party which was founded by him, would  be a step taken for a bigger victory – the change of authorities via early parliamentary elections.