Ex-head of UNM Grigol Vashadze joins Strategy Aghmashenebeli opposition party
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Former head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Grigol Vashadze has joined Giorgi Vashadze’s Strategy Aghmashebeli ahead of the October 2 municipal elections.
The party has plans to nominate a joint candidate for Tbilisi mayor.
Georgian Dream ruling party MPs say that both Giorgi and Grigol Vashadze ‘come from the UNM’ and public trust in them is ‘very low.’
The leaders of the new coalition have not changed neither their behaviour nor actions and the public attitude towards them remains the same,” Georgian Dream ruling party MP Guram Macharashvili stated.
The leader of the opposition Girchi party Iago Khvichia says that it would be better for the opposition to be focused on the common goal of defeating the GD in the elections, rather than the creation of new coalitions and spending time on bureaucratic issues.
Grigol Vashadze left the UNM chairmanship back in December 2020, shortly after the 2020 parliamentary elections ‘because of odious figures in the party’ and attacks on the diplomatic corps by the opposition following the elections.
He said that he had done his best as the head of the party since January 2017 to make the party stronger.
Transparency International Georgia has stated that the ruling Georgian Dream party had almost half of all parties' total revenues and expenditures, each amounting to about 60 million GEL, last year.
Thirty-six MPs of the United National Movement-Strength in Unity election bloc have officially asked parliament to suspend their status. They claim that the elections were fabricated by the ruling Georgian Dream party and state that they will continue to fight from the street to force the government hold repeat elections. The Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) annulled the party lists of five opposition parties earlier per their request yesterday, meaning candidates on the lists would not be able to replace opposition MPs who have officially refused to take up their mandates in parliament.
The ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition members have responded to the decision of the head of the opposition United National Movement Grigol Vashadze to leave the party earlier today.
The head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Grigol Vashadze has stated that he has left the party and said that the presence of ‘odious figures’ in the party and attacks on the diplomatic corps and ‘other controversies’ pushed him to resign. Vashadze said in his Facebook post released earlier today that he has done his best as the head of the party since January 2017 to make the party stronger.
Leader of the opposition Strategy Aghmashenebeli party Giorgi Vashadze has presented a new political platform, Third Force, which unites members of several other opposition political parties ahead of the October 2 municipal elections. Opposition party Strategy Aghmashenebeli, which received four of 60 opposition seats in the parliamentary elections 2020, will participate in the upcoming elections on behalf of the Third Force.
Tamar Kekenadze has been nominated for Tbilisi mayor in the October 2 municipal elections by the Strategy Agmashenebeli-led political platform Third Force today.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has held an online call with head of National Democratic Institute (NDI) Madeleine Albright, where he stated that the Georgian government is eager to receive many international observers for the October 2 municipal elections.