Opposition at Coordination Council meetings - NGO initiative and PM's response

The nongovernmental sector requires the presence of the opposition at meetings of the Coordination Council. They say it is necessary for the public to regularly see the picture that exists in the country today in terms of epidemiology. Eka Gigauri says the population should know if it is really safe to hold parliamentary elections on October 31.

As Gigauri says,if the pandemic becomes uncontrollable, it will be possible to postpone the elections because people's health is more important than elections.

According to her, the Public Defender should also attend the meetings of the council.

"If elections are the basis for an even greater spread of the virus, of course it is better to close the economy and postpone the elections, but it is important that there is a consensus on this. Therefore, it is very important that political parties are involved in this discussion. Of course, opposition parties should be represented in the Crisis Council," said Eka Gigauri.

 Gigauri's  initiative is shared and agreed upon in the non-governmental sector. Executive Director of ISFED and the Democratic Society says the opposition's opinion should be taken into account at such moments:

"In this case the position of political parties and their attitude is important, as well as it is important that they have appropriate consultations with the Coordination Council in order to get information on how reasonable it is to hold elections in this case," Elene Nizharadze said.

The elections are not being postponed," the Georgian Prime Minister said, calling the opposition's initiative to participate in the Coordination Council meetings a political manipulation:

"Unfortunately, in these rather toxic election conditions, any topic is used for political speculation. We just don't have enough for it," said Giorgi Gakharia.