Saakashvili declares push for early elections in Ukraine
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 file photo, governor of Odessa region in Ukraine, Mikhail Saakashvili speaks during the anti-corruption forum in Kiev, Ukraine. Mikhail Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who has resigned as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, says he will push for early elections in the country. Saakashvili said Friday, Nov. 11, 2016 that his goal is to hold "early parliamentary elections as quickly as possible." He said his political movement will team up with other opposition forces to unseat the current authorities. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov, File) (The Associated Press)
Mikhail Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who has resigned as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, says he will push for early elections in the country.
Saakashvili said Friday that his goal is to hold "early parliamentary elections as quickly as possible." He said his political movement will team up with other opposition forces to unseat the current authorities.
Speaking at a news conference, Saakashvili harshly criticized Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko for missing a chance to launch reforms. "Reforms and his well-being somehow contradict one another," he said of the president.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili governor of the corruption-riddled Black Sea region in May 2015. In his resignation announcement earlier this week, Saakashvili accused Poroshenko of supporting the criminal clans in Odessa.