In These New Times

PressTV

26th January, 2009

Georgia’s former UN ambassador has called for early presidential elections to bring the country out of the current political crisis. 

“I express my full solidarity with the demand of one part of the opposition about holding early elections,” Irakli Alasania said in an interview on Sunday. 

He also accused President Mikhail Saakashvili of forcing Georgia into a losing battle against Russia in August, which killed over 474 people on both sides in only five days. 

“Saakashvili must resign not only because he dragged the country into a provocative war, but also because he has no ability to deliver the country from the current military-political and economic crisis,” Alasania stressed. 

The former permanent UN representative also added that Saakashvili has lost both national and international confidence and so Georgians “should be given an opportunity to elect a new leadership”. 

Alasania who resigned from government on Dec. 4 due to “deep differences” with Saakashvili, has joined oppositional groups; however he has so far refrained from signifying which political party he intends to join. 

During the televised interview on Sunday, the former envoy said that he did not plan to set up a separate “political party”, adding that he intended to present his “political team” to the society “very soon”. 

Reports indicate that opposition groups, which are forming a new coalition, view Alasania — who has inclinations towards the West — as a potential presidential candidate, if early elections are called. 

After resigning from his UN post Alasania spent most January in the United States engaging in “consultations” with representatives of former and the new US administrations.