Azernews.Az

Collecting signatures in support of President Mikheil Saakashvili has started in Georgia, Trend news agency reported.

Text of the petition has been developed by the PatriotsMovement and a special page has been opened on Facebook social network.

"We are beginning to collect signatures in support of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. According to the Constitution, Saakashvili is the constitutionally elected president until October 2013, and questioning his legitimacy is anti-state and anti-constitutional, as well as disrespectful to the majority of the population who elected Saakashvili as president.

"We believe that the people who demanded the president's resignation cause direct harm to Georgia's statehood and trample on the Constitution. Based on this we have started to collect signatures of those people for whom the Constitution and the law is above all," the organisers' statement says.

Collecting signatures for the petition will end on Jan.20.

Signatures for Saakashvili's resignation have already been collected at the initiative of several NGOs over two months. Initiators of this campaign intend to carry out permanent campaigns from Jan.20 in front of the presidential palace until Saakashvili resigns.