01 June 2009, 22:10
In Georgia, the opposition is piqueting the Tbilisi Mayor's Office
Today the Georgian opposition has started to piquet the Tbilisi Mayor's House demanding that the city authorities should rather fulfil its direct functions, e.g. deal with the sanitary cleaning of the city rather than interfere with the political process.
In his turn, Teriel Hizansishvili, Head of the Cleaning Service of the Tbilisi Mayor's Office, said that the Tbilisi Freedom Square that today was open by the opposition for traffic "will be cleaned and disinfected," reports IA News-Georgia.
The people taking part in the demonstration in front of the Mayor's Office demand the resignation of Mikhail Saakashvili, the holding of early presidential elections and the introduction of the direct election of the Mayor.
At present the traffic through the Freedom Square has been fully restored. By now almost all streets adjoining the square have been opened. The Rustaveli Prospect, the Chitadze Street and the streets approaching the Parliament are still closed.
The opposition leaders claim that blocking the Freedom Square has had an important role. They call for paying more attention at the current stage to piqueting state institutions, in particular, the Parliament and the capital city Mayor's Office.
At night on May 31, in the Georgian capital, a speeding car crashed into one of the iron cages set up in the Rustaveli Prospect near the square in front of the Parliament used as barricades and night shelters by the participants of the political action in Tbilisi.
According to the opposition headquarters, four people taking part in the political protest action were injured as a result of the incident. The Georgian opposition headquarters accused the authorities and the ruling United National Movement party of provoking the incident.
