Margvelashvily refuses to debate one-to-one with Bakradze before presidential election in Georgia

Georgy Margvelashvily, the presidential candidate from the ruling coalition "Georgian Dream", has rejected the proposal of his opponent from the pro-presidential oppositional "United National Movement" (UNM) Party David Bakradze to hold the debate one-to-one. Margvelashvily stands for such debate format, when all the presidential candidates will be given a chance to fix his or her position.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 27 the UNM Party announced the results of its primaries, held during a month, for the nomination of the presidential candidate to be elected on October 27 this year. David Bakradze, the current leader of the parliamentary minority leader and the ex-speaker of the Parliament, is the winner of the intra-party election.

On July 27, Bakradze called Georgy Margvelashvily, a former deputy prime minister and the ex-Minister of Education and Sciences of Georgia, and now his opponent from the "Georgian Dream", on the open political debate. According to Bakradze, the debates should involve the candidates of the two major political forces of the country, who should present their vision on all the main issues for the country, and Margvelashvily will have to prove that his "main advantage is not in his personal friendship with the Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili."

Let us note here that political debates of presidential candidates are usually held within the framework of the campaign live on air by one of Georgian TV companies; however, to date none of them has allocated time for the debates.