The third round of negotiations between eight Georgian opposition parties and the ruling Georgian Dream ended with the plan to resume on Tuesday.

With little details of negotiations publicly known, as agreed with the facilitator EU and US ambassadors to Georgia, the parties are optimistic over the possibility to find a good outcome.

Georgian Dream Executive Secretary, Irakli Kobakhidze, who represented the ruling party together with the Chairman of Georgian Parliament Archil Talakvadze, believes the deadline for approval of the agreement is obvious. It is the first session of the Parliament of 10th Convocation, which will be held no later than the end of this week.

But not every issue on the table could be compromised. Kobakhidze stressed that the demand for a new election by the opposition is a red line for the ruling party.

“We have publicly stated that the Georgian Dream will not consider holding the new election or anything related to it, including the plebiscite,” the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Archil Talakvadze sid after the third round of negotiations at the residence of the US Ambassador to Georgia.

At the same time, Talakvadze added that there is a real possibility that the negotiation process will end with an agreement and the country returns to the normal political process and have a multi-party parliament.

Unfortunately, there is no compromise on our main demands, Grigol Vashadze, chairman of the United National Movement, which gained the most seats in the new Georgian parliament among opposition parties, said after the meeting. According to Vashadze, the Georgian Dream shows readiness to solve the important issues, but does not show readiness to compromise on the main issues that the opposition has been talking about since November 1, Grigol Vashadze said.

“We managed to get closer in some issues, but there are main demands where the positions could not be converged,” the leader of European Georgia, David Bakradze, told journalists.

The next fourth round of talks is planned for Tuesday.

Representatives of eight opposition parties and the ruling Georgian Dream gathered today at the residence of the US Ambassador to Georgia for the third round of negotiations over the October 31 parliamentary elections. The opposition, which secured seats in the Georgian Parliament of 10th Convocation, demands early elections, election administration reform, holding a plebiscite on new parliamentary elections in 2021, and release of the so-called political prisoners.