Celebrations as Georgian president resigns

Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze was swept out of power by a wave of opposition, stepping aside without bloodshed after a decade of mounting discontent and three weeks of protests over parliamentary elections his critics said highlighted the corruption that has plagued the former Soviet republic during his reign.

Some 50,000 demonstrators sang, swung flags and literally jumped for joy outside the parliament building, the focal point of the cascade of events that culminated in Shevardnadze’s sudden resignation yesterday as protesters threatened to storm his residence – a step he said he took to avoid a bloodbath in a region steeped in violence.

“I realised that what is happening may end with spilled blood if I use my rights” to employ force against the protesters, said Shevardnadze, who for weeks had rejected opposition demands that he step down in the wake of a November 2 parliamentary vote that was widely condemned as rigged.

“The president has accomplished a courageous act,” said opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili, head of the National Movement and the loudest voice calling for Shevardnadze’s resignation. But by the time the 75-year-old resigned, some servicemen had joined the protest crowds and it was unclear whether police and soldiers would have obeyed orders to use force.

Outside parliament, the news of Shevardnadze’s ousting turned the protest into a party. Crowds packed the streets of the capital, pouring champagne, honking car horns and celebrating into the night.

“It’s a great day in the history of Georgia,” said medical student Georgy Gosishvili, 21, waving the white flag with red stripes and crosses that is the symbol of what was, until yesterday afternoon, the opposition.

Another opposition leader, the speaker of the outgoing parliament Nino Burdzhanadze, assumed the presidency temporarily and promised new elections would be held as required by the constitution. In a televised address early today, Burdzhanadze told law enforcement agencies to establish order and urged Georgians to resume work and normal life.

While many Georgians have long detested Shevardnadze for letting corruption infest the country while most of its people fell into poverty, scraping by on tiny salaries and pensions, it was the parliamentary elections that galvanised the opposition and started the swell of protest.

Complaints of widespread ballot-box stuffing and other abuses quickly emerged, and opposition forces led by the fiery and erudite Saakashvili began daily protests outside parliament that attracted thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, demanding the elections be annulled or that Shevardnadze resign.

Shevardnadze called for “dialogue” but insisted he would stay in office through the end of his term in 2005 and refused to void the vote.

But his grip loosened and his options shrank over the weekend as the opposition chased him out of parliament and some military units defected to the protesters.

When elation over Shevardnadze’s resignation fades, Georgia’s former opposition leaders political figures will face a stern challenge in addressing Caucasus Mountain nation’s persistent problems and maintaining unity.

Georgia, which sits astride a planned oil pipeline between the Caspian Sea and Western customers and is wedged between Turkey and Russia, is of substantial strategic interest to both Washington and Moscow, which showed its desire for involvement by sending Ivanov to Tbilisi and has bristled at US military involvement in the nation.

The United States recognised Burdzhanadze as interim president, offering support for Georgia’s new leaders while urging them to seek stability, abide by the constitution and hold democratic elections.

The European Union’s executive Commission said Shevardnadze’s resignation “opens the way to restoration of constitutional law and order” and stressed that democratic elections must be held to help “restore a climate of trust and confidence” in Georgia.