Opposition Presidential Candidates Attack
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, October 23
Two opposition candidates, Grigol Vashadze from the United National Movement and David Bakradze from the European Georgia opposition are making statements prior to October 28 race, discrediting each other.
Vashadze, former Foreign Minister and Bakradze, the former parliament speaker, who were once in the same United National Movement team, are now in separate camps.
Vashadze has called the European Georgia a “so-called opposition” in response to Bakradze’s earlier statement.
“The so-called opposition says the National Movement is coming to revenge and they are calling on people not to allow this. They are just hopeless and Bidzina Ivanishvili [former PM, founder of the current ruling Georgian Dream party] is their last hope”, Vashadze said.
The statement came hours after Bakradze addressed voters gathered in the Sports Palace on Sunday.
“The Georgian Dream is trying to show that Georgians do not have a good choice, a choice-oriented to the future and that our choice is between bad and worse. This is a weapon used by the government today. It is regrettable that the government uses part of the opposition for this purpose, including the part, where we had been for years, I mean the National Movement. Aggressive rhetoric, non-admission of mistakes, lack of clear promises that there will not be revenge in the future – all this helps the government to portray that the country faces two alternatives – either there will be Salome Zourabichvili [a candidate supported by the Georgian Dream] and swamp, or the National Movement and revenge,”
“I am very far from believing what they say and I do not care about the government’s accusations regarding revenge and turmoil, but if we are responsible opposition, we should not let the government scare people by us,” Bakradze said.
Elene Khoshtaria from the European Georgia says that Vashadze’s statement harms the opposition and benefits the ruling team.
The UNM, which ran Georgia in 2003-2012, split on January 12, 2017, and in total 59 members left the party, including 21 MPs, forming the European Georgia opposition.
The main cause of the party’s split named was former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s informal leadership; however, former teammates also had a disagreement about entering Parliament after the October 8 parliamentary elections.
The split came shortly after the release of former Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava from prison, who is now one of the top figures of the European Georgia party.
Several UNM members claim that Ugulava was “deliberately released by Ivanishvili” to split the UNM.
