Ruling party official says presidential candidate “main guarantor of country’s interests”

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said Mikheil Kavelashvili, a member of the Georgian Parliament and the GD’s presidential candidate, was the “main guarantor” that the office of the President  would “no longer serve the interests of other countries and groups”.

Mdinaradze stressed Kavelashvili was a “person with whom even a mistake is ruled out ” in reference to the ruling party’s controversies with incumbent President Salome Zourabichvili over the recent years and added he would “serve the homeland based on his personal, Georgian qualities”.

Earlier today, the party named Kavelashvili as its presidential candidate for the election scheduled for December 14.  

The MP and former national football team player was presented by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and Honorary Chair of the party.

According to the new rules, defined by the Constitution, the Georgian President will no longer be elected directly, through universal suffrage.

The Central Election Commission, to elect the President, will form an electoral college, composed of 300 members.

The college will include 150 members of the Parliament, while the other 150 will involve 20 members from the Supreme Council of the Abkhazia region, 21 from the Supreme Council of the Adjara region, and 109 formed from representatives of local self-government bodies.