Press Scanner
Compiled by Liana Bezhanishvili
Wednesday, March 10
Every family in Tbilisi will be asked its opinion
In an interview with Rezonansi Deputy Chair of Zurab Noghaideli's Movement for Fair Georgia Levan Roinishvili has stated: "We will conduct a thorough poll. We will go to every district in Tbilisi and interview every family to obtain an accurate result.
“March 7 was the deadline we gave to those parties who wanted to take part in this process. March 28 is now the deadline for candidates to present themselves and only the parties who support this idea will be able to nominate candidates and conduct the poll. This project is quite ambitious and will take a while to fulfill. It is good that the process is taking a long time because the vote belongs to the elector and accordingly each elector must feel himself a participant of the electoral process. Not only the result is significant, we want the citizens to take part in this process and that is why is necessary to cover all Tbilisi,” stated Levan Roinishvili.
“The opposition members who have been named as candidates will not be involved in conducting this poll. It will not be Zurab Noghaideli but a member of the party who will do it, although we have not planned to nominate a candidate anyway," Roinishvili concluded.
I tried to unite everyone but failed - Alasania
In an interview with Kviris Palitra leader of the Alliance for Georgia Irakli Alasania has talked about his recent activities. In response to the suggestion that his recent moves have been unclear and his attempt to unite the opposition not well understood, he states: "The Alliance has not broken up but we have had an internal difference of opinion on whether to hold meetings with colleagues about the primaries or not and also on how to identify the common candidate. Despite these differences I took a risk and together with my party organisation began to negotiate with other parts of the opposition. After this we are better acquainted with each others' positions.
"We could not agree on two things: first of all the proposed way of identifying the common candidate was unacceptable for us. Moving this process to the middle of April would make us lose a lot of time. Our second dispute was over Zurab Noghaideli participating in the process of identifying the candidate. As he is not standing for Mayor we felt that he should not play a part in this process.
"The public and opposition were once united but because time is passing the nomination of the joint candidate must not be delayed. We must agree that in this fight we will stand together, not separately. The fact that we have not achieved complete consent does not mean that anyone has betrayed the public's confidence. I could not allow the Alliance for Georgia to dictate the terms of unity to the rest so I tried to connect the two political camps. Because this has not proved possible at this stage I will continue to work within the Alliance," said Alasania.
In an interview with Rezonansi Deputy Chair of Zurab Noghaideli's Movement for Fair Georgia Levan Roinishvili has stated: "We will conduct a thorough poll. We will go to every district in Tbilisi and interview every family to obtain an accurate result.
“March 7 was the deadline we gave to those parties who wanted to take part in this process. March 28 is now the deadline for candidates to present themselves and only the parties who support this idea will be able to nominate candidates and conduct the poll. This project is quite ambitious and will take a while to fulfill. It is good that the process is taking a long time because the vote belongs to the elector and accordingly each elector must feel himself a participant of the electoral process. Not only the result is significant, we want the citizens to take part in this process and that is why is necessary to cover all Tbilisi,” stated Levan Roinishvili.
“The opposition members who have been named as candidates will not be involved in conducting this poll. It will not be Zurab Noghaideli but a member of the party who will do it, although we have not planned to nominate a candidate anyway," Roinishvili concluded.
I tried to unite everyone but failed - Alasania
In an interview with Kviris Palitra leader of the Alliance for Georgia Irakli Alasania has talked about his recent activities. In response to the suggestion that his recent moves have been unclear and his attempt to unite the opposition not well understood, he states: "The Alliance has not broken up but we have had an internal difference of opinion on whether to hold meetings with colleagues about the primaries or not and also on how to identify the common candidate. Despite these differences I took a risk and together with my party organisation began to negotiate with other parts of the opposition. After this we are better acquainted with each others' positions.
"We could not agree on two things: first of all the proposed way of identifying the common candidate was unacceptable for us. Moving this process to the middle of April would make us lose a lot of time. Our second dispute was over Zurab Noghaideli participating in the process of identifying the candidate. As he is not standing for Mayor we felt that he should not play a part in this process.
"The public and opposition were once united but because time is passing the nomination of the joint candidate must not be delayed. We must agree that in this fight we will stand together, not separately. The fact that we have not achieved complete consent does not mean that anyone has betrayed the public's confidence. I could not allow the Alliance for Georgia to dictate the terms of unity to the rest so I tried to connect the two political camps. Because this has not proved possible at this stage I will continue to work within the Alliance," said Alasania.