UNM names Lelo leader Khazaradze as deputy mayoral candidate
Nika Melia said Mamuka Khazaradze would be the best candidate for deputy mayor's position.
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Opposition United National Movement chair Nika Melia, who is also a mayoral candidate in Tbilisi, has named Lelo for Georgia party leader Mamuka Khazaradze as a candidate for deputy mayor’s position.
Melia, who introduced the program of the opposition coalition, said Khazaradze is the person whose support strengthens him.
[He] will fight for the welfare of our children and the elder people”, Melia referred to Khazaradze.
Encouraging diversity, Melia claims Tbilisi will have the first ever coalition government in history if he wins the October 30 municipal run-offs.
His other deputies will also include GIrchi-More Freedom party leader Zurab Japaridze, Droa leader Elene Khoshtaria and European Georgia member Irakli Abesadze.
Melia also claims that in case of victory, he will quit the UNM chair’s post and remain its ordinary member.
I don’t think it is right to be the mayor of the city with 1.5 million people and be holding [local] government sessions in Tbilisi City Hall and at the same time attending consultations at the party”, Melia said.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili is meanwhile confident that Melia will lose the municipal run-offs. Calling UNM ‘dictatorship' he said ‘it is shameful that criminals like him’ still remain in today’s politics.
Municipal elections were held in Georgia on October 2. However, a second round of municipal elections have been scheduled on October 30 as some candidates did not receive enough votes to overcome the mandatory threshold, including in Tbilisi.