Saakashvili calls for early parliamentary and presidential elections in Ukraine
Participants of the protest action under the Verkhovna Rada "All-Ukrainian gathering for large-scale political reform" intend to expand their demands and add adopting a law on the impeachment of the President.
"The moment they refuse our conditions, we will have to expand them," said Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the New Forces Movement (Rukh Novyh Sil) on Sunday in Kyiv.
He stated that if the Verkhovna Rada and the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko did not want to listen to the demands of the protesters, they had to resign. Saakashvili called for early elections in Ukraine, both parliamentary and presidential. "And if the President continues [to ignore the demands of the protesters – Interfax], then we must decide that he should leave and we re-elect a new president," Saakashvili said.
He emphasized, however, that the protesters did not prepare a coup d'état. The politician also suggested that presidential elections in Ukraine should be held under a new mechanism using primaries.
Saakashvili stressed that on November 7, when the Verkhovna Rada meets in plenary session, as many people as possible should come to the square in front of the parliament building to remind parliamentarians about their demands: to adopt a new law on elections of people's deputies, to create an Anti-Corruption Court and to abolish deputy immunity.
"If they adopt all of them on November 7, then it's a good step, but if they do not adopt, we should find other, more peaceful avenues than standing outside under their windows... We cannot keep standing here forever. We cannot keep freezing here forever," said the leader of the New Forces Movement.
Saakashvili also stressed that the people gathered under the building of the Verkhovna Rada "have a mechanism to change the power."
As a correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine agency reports, an activist-organized “veche” or popular assembly is currently being held on Constitution Square in front of the Verkhovna Rada building in the center of Kyiv. About 500 to 700 people of different ages have gathered in the square. The rally continues to run smoothly.