Parliament official: Confrontation in UNM “acute”, exclude possibility for party to remain united

Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament's Committee on Human Rights on Saturday said the confrontation in the opposition United National Movement party became so “critical” that any possibility for the party “to remain united could be excluded”.

Sarjveladze commented on the ongoing intra-party standoff between two “camps” in UNM, ahead of an election for the position of its Chair, and said that the groups inside the party put their “mercantile self-interests first” and the ongoing processes in the party were not significant for Georgia and its citizens. 

In the process of this controversy [in UNM], many details became visible to the public”, the Committee Chair noted, adding it “turned out” that while the opposition had been accusing the Government for its “certain actions”, indeed some members of the opposition party “ascribed their wicked deeds” to the Government.

As regards the initiative of the UNM chair candidates Nona Mamulashvili and Giorgi Khvedeliani on asking people whether the party should boycott and leave the Parliament, Sarjveladze said Mamulashvili [who had left the Parliament amid the protests of the municipal election run-offs results in 2021] in this way was “trying to justify” her decision of leaving the legislative body. 

By electors’ support and votes given to the MPs, they are not granted any "privilege" but have an "obligation" to work "relentlessly and tirelessly", he said, stressing "some people" in Georgian politics [UNM members] considered their function was to only have power.