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Energy Minister will be good Mayor

By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, May 30
Current Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania does not exclude that the ruling party Georgian Dream (GD) might name Vice-Premier and Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze as their candidate for the post of mayor of the capital.

Narmania is sure that Kaladze will be a good mayor.

“Kaladze is my friend. He stood by my side during the elections and if the team names him as a mayoral candidate, I will support him,” Narmania told the Kviris Palitra newspaper.

The mayor believes that if Kaladze’s candidacy is confirmed, it does not mean that the GD party disapproves of his own work as the city’s mayor.

“The quality of my success should be determined by society, especially after a lot of projects were implemented by me,” he added, and named several projects carried out during his term.

Narmania added that the ruling party has not agreed who their mayoral candidate will be and as soon as the process is over, they will inform the public.

Earlier this month, the mayor spoke about the necessary qualities the next mayor should have.

“Our candidate should be familiar with agricultural activities, should know the city, its peculiarities and specifications, and should have proper communication skills,” he said.

Moreover, Narmania does not deny that his candidacy might be named by the GD party for the position of Auditor General. However, he says that consultations are still underway regarding this issue.

Kaladze himself has not confirmed that he might be named as the mayoral candidate of the ruling party.

“The name of our candidate will be known after the inter-party consultations are over. I will follow the decision of the team,” he said.

As for the mayoral candidates of the opposition parties, only one party – European Georgia –has officially named their candidate, Elene Khoshtaria.

According to unofficial information, the candidate of the United National Movement will be Nikanor Melia.

The local self-governing elections are scheduled for October 2017.