Alasania kicked up the backside by NGOs

“Non-governmental organisations demand from Irakli Alasania that he be more active in the election campaign,” stated Representative of Georgian Academy Nukri Kantaria on March 23. Irakli Alasania is the only opposition Mayoral candidate in Tbilisi, he said.

“On 24 February the NGOs nominated Irakli Alasania s the opposition Mayoral candidate so he became not only the Alliance leader on that day. Some other opposition leaders were offended by this, others have begun to think about the issue but although we respect all the opposition candidates we believe that at the beginning of May everything will become clear. We will see which opposition candidate plays the Government’s game and participates in dividing the opposition vote. We will also see which leader made the right decision,” stated Kantaria.

Chair of the Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights NGO Nana Kakabadze said that Irakli Alasania is the favoured candidate of her organisation and it is very important how he conducts his campaign because the public must be sure he will win. “Our position on Alasania is that of all the Mayoral candidates his orientation and concerns are the closest to ours. Our demand is to introduce all acceptable Western values,” she told The Messenger.

“Of course we will take demands into consideration if they are not aggressive. But we were intending to become active before these demands were made because there are only 2 months before the elections. According to PR practice people remember better the last thing they saw and therefore we are going to be more active in these two last months to achieve the right result,” member of the Alliance for Georgia Nana Nachkebia told The Messenger.