Elections within 45 days in Georgia

Georgia’s interim president pledged today to hold elections in 45 days and called on police and security services to restore order after a wave of protest swept longtime President Eduard Shevardnadze out of power.

Opposition leader Nino Burdzhanadze appealed to Georgia’s citizens to fulfil all the legal demands of law enforcement officials.

“Order must be restored immediately not only in Tbilisi but also in all the regions of the country,” she said in a nationally televised speech.

Life in Tbilisi appeared to be returning to normal today after a night of street parties, and only a few dozen stragglers stood outside the parliament building, the epicentre of the protests.

Traffic flowed freely along Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli avenue for the first time in days, with the bustle of a normal work week getting under way.

Shevardnadze resigned yesterday after a decade of mounting discontent and three weeks of protests over parliamentary elections his critics said exemplified 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 following Shevardnadze’s sudden exit – 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 marred by fraud.

“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.

Burdzhanadze, a scholarly-looking 39-year-old lawyer, acted quickly to ensure their loyalty.

She convened an overnight meeting of the country’s top security officials, including Tedo Dzhaparidze, the security council chairman whom Shevardnadze had fired after the official publicly acknowledged electoral fraud and called for new elections.

Conspicuously absent was Koba Narchemashvili, the interior minister who had flanked Shevardnadze as he declared a state of emergency on Saturday.

In her speech, Burdzhanadze said that because of the rigged elections, the old parliament she chaired would resume its legislative duties. She said that the constitution required elections in 45 days, and confirmed that balloting for both the president and parliament would be held.

Burdzhanadze said that Georgia would do the utmost to maintain friendly relations with its neighbours, including Russia. She also reaffirmed the nation’s pro-western course pursued by Shevardnadze, who often said Georgia would come knocking on NATO’s door one day.

“Georgia will firmly continue to realise the foreign policy course that was chosen by the country from the first days of the restoration of its independence: the road to integration and the soonest joining of European and Euro-Atlantic structures,” she said.