Giorgi Baramidze, member of the United National Movement, responds to the statements of the Georgian President about her “desire to effectively ‘appoint’ the future Prime Minister before the elections”.

“I want to be clear about Salome Zourabichvili’s desire to effectively ‘appoint’ the future Prime Minister before the elections, and apparently, all parties should approve her proposed person without question and obediently. According to Eka Beselia, a representative of Zourabichvili’s political team, this information is allegedly stated in the Charter, as she delivered during her appearance on TV Pirveli today. This is not written in the Georgian Charter as such, and this interpretation is precisely Beselia’s (and probably Zourabichvili’s) interpretation, not what the parties agreed upon by signing the Charter.

Secondly, is this the time to talk about allocating posts? First, we all need to peacefully remove the treasonous and criminal regime from power together and in unity. The people should give parties political mandates according to their support. Only after this, in exact accordance with the text of the Charter, with the participation of Zourabichvili and others, will the new parliamentary coalition majority, endowed with the appropriate mandate from the people, form a new (transitional) government, which will include patriotic professionals, including non-party members. Therefore, discussing this topic now and shifting attention to the allocation of offices instead of focusing on removing the regime seems fundamentally misguided and incorrect.

I remind everyone that UNM voters have never given Zourabichvili a political mandate of trust, especially considering the unfortunate circumstance that she stubbornly fails to fulfil her constitutional duty and does not release President Saakashvili, [Vladimir] Putin’s personal prisoner, from illegal political imprisonment.

I also remind everyone that according to all competent public opinion polls, a fairly large majority of Georgian society supports Misha’s release. Also, hundreds of thousands of our compatriots have collected signatures and appealed to Zourabichvili demanding Misha’s release. Unfortunately, her response was zero.

Presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, France also appealed to Madam Salome for Misha’s release - her response was zero. Recently, at a reception at the President’s residence, I personally spoke to her and told that releasing President Saakashvili is both her right and her duty. Her reaction was negative.

Recently, the largest party in Europe – the People’s Party, including in the OSCE format, and the Liberal Party also appealed to the Georgian government, of which Madam Zourabichvili is a part, demanding the ‘unconditional and immediate’ release of President Saakashvili. Her reaction to this was also zero.

Therefore, the public expression of reproach towards the UNM by Zourabichvili’s political supporters, because we do not intend to interpret the text of the Charter as they see fit and do not intend to act according to their political plans, is incorrect and unacceptable.

We call on everyone to put ambitions aside and focus on what is truly most important for our people – peacefully removing the regime of traitors from power on the 26th! Glory to Georgia! Freedom to Misha”, - writes Giorgi Baramidze.