Political gladiators and the art of negotiation-led politics

The Georgian public as well as the international community has been looking forward to a positive breakthrough in the battle between Georgia's political gladiators for over a month now. A breakthrough seemed to come on May 11 when a dialogue was at last established between the ruling party and it's extra-parliamentary opposition.

What should have been "open negotiations with no pre-set agenda" resulted in talks between an opposition with a pre-requisite for early presidential elections, and a ruling party operating on the condition that presidential resignation remains frimly off the discussion table. Consequently, predictably, although ideas have been exchanged, no tangible outcome - or sign of an agreement, has yet been achieved.

The radical opposition meanwhile is calling upon it's supporters to participate in the civil parade, which they will hold on May 26 - Georgia`s Independence day. Additionally, the opposition continues to stage smaller scale protest rallies in Tbilisi. Davit Berdzenishvili of the Republican Party, part of Alliance for Georgia, stated the opposition had almost completed drafting its response to the authorities' proposals, put forth by President Saakashvili on May 11 after meeting with the opposition leaders.

Peter Semneby, EU's special representative for South Caucasus and an informal mediator engaged in regular contacts with both the authorities and the opposition leaders since the launch of street protest rallies on April 9, met with some of the opposition leaders on May 17 to discuss ongoing political standoff . Davit Usupashvili, leader of Republican Party, part of Alliance for Georgia; Nino Burjanadze, leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia; Kakha Kukava, co-leader of Conservative Party and Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia's Way all participated in the meeting with the EU diplomat.

Meanwhile, the political parties represented in the parliamentary minority group reiterated their intentions to engage in talks with the authorities on constitutional reforms.

The ruling party aims to avoid any major provocations or confrontations, thereby retaining calm and, so the hope goes, ultimately winning the political battle of nerves.

For now however, the vicious circle of political chaos does seem to be diminishing in Georgia. Negotiation led and consensus based politics, on the other hand, still need enhancing.