“Saakashvili will be back after elections,” vows Georgia ex-first lady, №2 in UNM party list
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Former first lady of Georgia Sandra Roelofs claims her husband Mikheil Saakashvili, the country’s ex-president who is now Odessa Governor in Ukraine, "will celebrate victory with his people” after the October 8 Parliamentary Elections.
He will be with us, here in Georgia, to celebrate victory. If he needs to dig a tunnel from Odessa to Sololaki [a district in central Tbilisi] he will do this,” said Roelofs this evening.
Roelofs made these comments at a UNM pre-election event in Samegrelo region in west Georgia.
Roelofs, who is of Dutch origin, is participating in the upcoming elections with UNM – the same party established by her husband that ruled the country from 2003-2012 when UNM was defeated by the current ruling Georgian Dream coalition at the 2012 Parliamentary Elections.
Roelofs is number two in the UNM party list and has been named as the party majoritarian candidate in Zugdidi, Samegrelo region.
Saakashvili was Georgia’s third president and led the country from 2004-2007 and again from 2008-2013.
In 2014 Saakashvili was charged for his role in several crimes however that time he was already in Ukraine.
On May 30, 2015 Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili as head of Odessa region in south-west Ukraine. At the same time he was also granted Ukrainian citizenship.
Receiving Ukrainian citizenship meant Saakashvili’s Georgian citizenship was automatically revoked, as Georgian legislation prohibits people from holding dual citizenships, except for some exceptions.
Saakashvili is no longer a Georgian citizen and if he returned to Georgia he will face a court of law.
After hearing the comments by Roelofs, Defence Minister Levan Izoria said if Saakashvili crossed the border into Georgia, the country’s law enforcers would "immediately take measures” [to detain him].
United National Movement (UNM), the opposition party that was ousted in the 2012 Parliamentary Elections, has named former first lady of Georgia, Sandra Roelofs, as its majoritarian candidate representing west Georgia’s Zugdidi municipality.
Today opposition political party United National Movement (UNM) revealed its election list, naming its top 10 candidates for the October Parliamentary Election race.
Georgia’s current President Giorgi Margvelahsvili announced he would annul Saakashvili’s Georgian citizenship, as he had received Ukrainian citizenship, and it was against the law to hold dual citizenship unless in special circumstances.
“Whatever the election outcome, I won’t return to Georgia”
Georgia’s ex-President and now governor of Odessa in Ukraine says he will not return to Georgia, regardless of the Parliamentary Election results.
Former first lady and wife of the third President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili Sandra Roelofs has announced plans to run in the by elections of Zugdidi Mayor, in western Georgia.