Opposition Rallies Continue

Mikheil Machavariani, the vice-speaker of the parliament from the ruling party, said the opposition's tactic of "picketing" was continuation of war of nerves, instead of working on overcoming problems of our citizens." Speaking in Imedi TV's program on April 13, Machavariani stated that the ruling party was still offering the opposition to launch dialogue on number of issues, including democratic reforms and economic problems.

He further underlined that the authorities were offering the opposition to launch discussion on "new constitutional arrangement wherein the parliament will have more powers than the president - wherein powers will be concentrated in the Parliament."

Today, Opposition leaders announced at a rally outside the Parliament that they would launch "round-the-clock protests" outside the presidential residence in the Avlabari district of Tbilisi from this Monday. The rallies outside the residence were held in previous days, but lasted for few hours. Kakha Kukava, co-leader of Conservative Party, told thousands gathered outside the Parliament that "simultaneously, the main part of the protests will continue here [outside the Parliament] and we will gather here on the Rustaveli Avenue at 3pm everyday and at 4pm we will make statements about our further action plans."