Tbilisi Ex-Mayor Participates in Midterm Elections
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, February 6
TBILISI—Gigi Ugulava, former Tbilisi Mayor and a member of the parliamentary minority – European Georgia, will take part in midterm parliamentary elections.
At the European Georgia fifth congress, held on February 4, Ugulava was named as the majoritarian candidate of the party in Vani and Khoni district, West Georgia.
The seat became vacant after Grigol Liluashvili, ruling Georgian Dream (GD) majoritarian MP in Vani and Khoni, became Deputy Head of Georgia’s State Security Service.
The midterm elections in Vani and Khoni will be held in late April.
Ugulava hopes to become the majoritarian MP of Khoni and Vani majoritarian district.
“We see the paused economics, increased criminal and self-satisfied, well-off officials while the country is in poverty. Khoni and Vani have the chance to change the poor life by progress," he stated.
According to Ugulava, if the opposition wins in Khoni and Vani, it will win the presidential elections which will be held in October, 2018.
“If we are consolidated, we can make 2018 a year of great turnaround and hope,” Ugulava said and offered cooperation to other opposition parties.
“European Georgia is the best platform for the opposition, because in the last elections we had best results among all opposition parties in Khoni and Vani. Let's turn these elections into cooperation and not confrontation," he added.
At the congress, the party also elected the chair of the political council, Giga Bokeria. He claimed only with European Georgia the country can become truly free, developed and European.
“Our party and the whole Georgian society will not allow Georgian Dream to leave our country in this political swamp,” he stressed.
Davit Bakradze, the chairman of European Georgia, has invited pro-Western political parties to consultations. Bakradze hopes there will be a constructive attitude from other political parties. According to him, the opposition unity is important in the parliamentary elections scheduled for spring.
“We are open for consultations to find common language with other opposition parties in order to defeat the government. Hopefully, there will be a constructive attitude from other parties,” Bakradze said, adding the main criterion is the party to be pro-western, and not to serve tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who established the ruling Georgian Dream party.
