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Georgia's opposition unable to change power in country

Politics Materials 24 May 2011 22:58 (UTC +04:00)
Currently Georgia's opposition is not able to organize protests that could lead to a change of power in the country, said British expert on South Caucasus Alice Mummery.

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 24 /Trend, V.Zhavoronkova/

Currently Georgia's opposition is not able to organize protests that could lead to a change of power in the country, said British expert on South Caucasus Alice Mummery.

Georgian radical opposition is holding rallies demanding President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation for four days already. Saakashvili's ex-associate, former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili, who is hiding from the Georgian justice abroad for several years, promised to come and help the Georgian opposition, but later he said he postponed his visit.
One of the leaders of the opposition, leader of the People's Assembly of Georgia Nino Burjanadze stated that she will not give up holding protests unless the current president of the republic resigns.

According to Mummery, the analyst of London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, Georgian opposition is unable to achieve the change of power in the republic.

"The opposition may find it hard to generate the momentum needed to overthrow Saakashvili," Mummery wrote in an e-mail to Trend.

She said during the anti-government opposition protests held in 2009, around 50,000 people participated - a much larger figure than has been seen in the recent wave of unrest.
"At the present time, it does not seem that the opposition will be able to maintain such lengthy and widespread protests - the public's interests in participating in the demonstrations have been reasonably weak do far," said Mummery.

According to the analyst, there are several factors this could encourage more people to go out onto the streets.

One of the factors is the coming together of some of the opposition groups in Georgia will boost their ability to draw supporters to the streets.

However, opposition leaders still can not agree among themselves.

Also if the Georgian authorities continue to use heavy tactics to suppress the protestors, this could encourage more people to go out onto the streets, said the analyst.

However, in general, the consequences of protest actions will depend on the willingness of the population to participate in subsequent meetings, if they occur, the expert said.

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