Zurabishvili's presidential campaign starts at background of protest action

The political council of the ruling "Georgian Dream" Party has decided to support Salome Zurabishvili in her presidential race, finding her a worthy independent candidate, who will properly fulfil the presidential duties, the "Sputnik-Georgia" reports with reference to Irakli Kobakhidze, the party's executive secretary and the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

Ms Zurabishvili officially launched her election campaign on September 12 with a meeting with the population of Kutaisi. However, by the start of the meeting, in front of the building, in which it was planned, several locals gathered with posters. They demanded from Zurabishvili to cancel the meeting and leave Kutaisi, blaming her for an anti-Georgian statement. Their indignation was caused by the fact that Zurabishvili had declared that it was Georgia unleashing the "Five-Day War" in August 2008, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Salome Zurabishvili is the factual candidate for the presidency from the "Georgian Dream" Party, Shota Utiashvili, a representative of the Georgian Fund for Strategic and International Studies. "It's not a support of an independent candidate; she's a party's candidate. Most likely, her candidacy was approved personally by Bidzina Ivanishvili," Mr Utiashvili told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The expert did not rule out that Ivanishvili opted for Zurabishvili's candidacy, wishing that the post of the president is occupied by a person without political ambitions, who will not create a coalition and whose actions will never damage the "Georgian Dream" Party.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 14, 2018 at 05:33 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.