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Burjanadze and Ivanishvili's Parties Spar over Activists

Civil.ge reports that the presidential candidate Nino Burjanadze (Democratic Movement-United Georgia) (DMUG) recently claimed that members of the Georgian Dream coalition, disillusioned by current government’s policies, are quitting PM Ivanishvili’s party and joining Burjanadze’s DMUG.

PM Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream says that although there have been only few cases of activists switching sides, reports about a mass outflow of members is simply a campaign “PR trick” used by competitors ahead of the October 27 presidential election.

Chief of Burjanadze’s campaign headquarters, Gigla Baramidze, said that “hundreds” of activists were joining the DMUG party “not only from the Georgian Dream, but from the United National Movement as well.”

“That’s a natural process; we are not working on attracting activists from [other parties]; they simply see a better future with Burjanadze,” said Baramidze.

“It is ludicrous and also outrageous when our competitor… uses such dirty tricks. Of course I would disagree if the withdrawal of one or two people from the party is described as a massive outflow of activists… I call on everyone not to use such cheap tricks,” Armaz Akhvlediani, the Executive Secretary of the Georgian Dream, told Maestro TV on August 23.



Analyst Mamuka Areshidze on illegal arrests at administrative border

Analyst in conflict issues, Mamuka Areshidze, spoke with Rezonansi newspaper concerning the permanent detention of Georgian citizens at the administrative border.

The analyst claims that Georgian citizens living on the bordering area with occupied South Ossetia have no idea where the “conditional border is located.”

“Local residents should be informed which area is being controlled by the Georgian side and which one is controlled by Russian border guards. Nearly 25, 000 people live in that area and from a social-economic and security point of view, they are in bad conditions,” Areshidze said.