Ruling party official downplays domestic opposition’s unification ahead of elections

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday said it did “not matter if the domestic opposition unites or not because when you are a radical, the public will always give you an appropriate answer”, in comments ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in October.

Kaladze’s comments followed media reports about a possible unification of the opposition ahead of the vote.

Actually, this is one group, they have one patron. They may appear under different names, but this is not essential, just like their unification. Radicals will always be doomed to failure. Since 2012, these people have been destabilising our country, trying to bring about everything bad - confrontation, division of the public. Obviously, such actions are doomed to failure”, he said.

Kaladze also claimed the opposition had “deliberately misled” the public in promoting themselves as having “new faces” for the election.

“The opposition is trying to mislead the public as if they have new political faces, although these people are forgotten, old faces, radicals born from the heart of the United National Movement [party]. The National Movement was not just [the imprisoned former President] Mikheil Saakashvili”, he added.

Kaladze also alleged a “transformation” of non-governmental organisations into political parties by claiming “many” NGOs were “essentially political entities funded from abroad”, and highlighting a “need for transparency legislation”.