Rati Ionatamishvili: Upcoming elections will be the first and last for Gakharia’s party
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Monday, June 7
One of the leaders of the parliamentary majority, Rati Ionatamishvili, predicts that the upcoming self-government elections will be the last for the newly formed party of former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia – For Georgia. According to him, Gakharia's attempt to enter politics is not convincing.
He also noted that Giorgi Gakharia ended his career when he left the Prime Minister's office. According to him, the reasons that Gakharia discussed were very “awkward and non-argumentative.”
“I think that anyone who tries so hard to get into politics is in fact a project of other parties. Therefore, self-government elections will be the first for this party and probably the last,” added Ionatamishvili.
Another leader of the Georgian Dream Mamuka Mdinaradze said that the resignation of Gakharia worked only for UNM. According to him, people still have not heard a real, rational reason about what would changing the date of Melia's detention do.
“There are only two options: he could not analyze what was going on, he got scared and abandoned the team, or he deliberately played the game of the United National movement and betrayed his own team,” added Mdinaradze.
Recently, the chairman of Georgian Dream Irakli Kobakhidze said that prior to the detention of Melia, UNM had a special plan to create an alternative government. He said that the Georgian Dream already had that information, but did not share it with then PM Gakharia, because they ‘had doubts about him’. He did not say directly that Gakharia had a connection with UNM.
The representatives of Gakharia’s party made comments about Kobakhidze’s interview. One of the members of For Georgia said that such claims ‘turn into gossips’ as there is no evidence to support the claims.
Giorgi Gakharia presented his party For Georgia and his new team on May 29. In his speech, he said that the Georgian Dream had ‘distanced itself from the real problems’ of its citizens and considered that for the Georgian Dream fighting opponents was a much more important issue.
Gakharia left his position on May 18. At the time, the former PM said that the decision was made because of the difference in opinion between him and the team about the case of Nika Melia, the chairman of the United National Movement. After presenting For Georgia, Gakharia told reported that Melia should have been arrested, however, the problem was the form of the arrest.
