Ruling GD Supports Salome Zurabishvili in Presidential Elections
Ruling party Georgian Dream (GD), which decided not to have their own candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for October 28, will back independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili.
The decision of the party was announced by the Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze on September 9 after the political council meeting.
Kobakhidze said the Georgian Dream stuck to its decision not to nominate its own candidate for the elections.
“Georgia is a Parliamentary Republic, where power is concentrated between the parliament and the government, where the President enjoys only representative functions; and in this system, the President has to be above partisan politics, has to be unbiased and should not represent the interests of the ruling party or the opposition, but rather be a defender of the people’s interests,” he explained, adding that in order to ensure maximum political pluralism, considering the country’s interests, an independent candidate should become President.
“We [GD] think Salome Zurabishvili can establish a new tradition in our constitutional system: she can fulfill the President’s functions not in the interests of an individual party or a political group, but based on the interests of the country and society as a whole,” Kobakhidze said.
He then called on Georgian society to support Zurabishvili’s candidacy.
After the ruling party announced their choice, Zurabishvili said her expectations had been met.
“This is a very positive decision for me, I think it is also a right and a democratic decision for the ruling party…I am very happy,” she added.
Salome Zurabishvili was an independent candidate in the 2016 parliamentary elections and the GD decided to withdraw their candidate in Mtatsminda region to help her win the seat in the legislative body.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Georgia says 46 applicants have applied to the Central Election Commission. September 18 is a deadline for presidential candidates to submit a list of supporters (no less than 25,923) to the CEC.
Zurabishvili submitted signatures of more than 73 thousand supporters to the CEC.
Check out GEORGIA TODAY'S EXCLUSIVE interview with PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SALOME ZURABISHVILI this THURSDAY!
By Thea Morrison