Georgian Dream endorses Salome Zourabichvili’s candidacy in presidential elections

The ruling Georgian Dream party has announced today that it will be endorsing independent candidate Salome Zourabichvili as candidate for the presidency.

The ruling party had earlier announced it would not be putting forward a presidential candidate for the elections.

• See Zourabichvili’s biography here.

Speaker of the Georgian parliament Irakli Kobakhidze called on Georgian society to support Salome Zourabichvili as a presidential candidate today. His announcement followed the meeting of the Georgian Dream’s political council.

“The president should be above the interests of any party and an impartial person, representing the interests of either the ruling party nor the opposition and be the objective defender of the people's’ interests. After the elections a new way of functioning of the presidential institution should be established that follows the tradition of European parliamentarian states. This would be hampered if we would name our own candidate. Despite the fact that there are a number of dignified leaders in our team who could easily win the presidential elections, we believe that we should elect an independent candidate for the sake of maximum pluralism in Georgia’s political life,” Irakli Kobakhidze said.

He characterised Zourabichvili as a candidate who has ‘distinguished diplomatic experience’ recalling the agreement reached about the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia during her term as of the Foreign Minister. As Kobakhidze noted, Salome Zourabichvili has a chance to become the first impartial president in the history of Georgia.