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Compiled by Messenger staff
Thursday, January 10
Why did the President decide to call back ambassadors?

Chairman of Parliamentary Legal Issues Committee, Vakhtang Khmaladze, told Kvela Siakhle that Georgian Dream coalition members may either name the one presidential candidate or choose from several independently named ones. “Not much time is left until the presidential elections, this is why the decision about the candidate must be received by the beginning of this summer,” Khmaladze said, almost confident that the coalition will still focus on one joint candidate.

He said if other Georgian Dream members aside from Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili will support his candidacy, he may also run for presidency. He said “dealing” between political actors which is natural for other countries has somewhat negative meaning in Georgia. According to Khmaladze, wise politicians aim at achieving a deal through consensus. In this case, none of the sides can manage to fulfil their own wishes. “It was a consensus when the president presented Bidzina Ivanishvili as Prime Minister to the Parliament not his desired candidacy. The parliament also reached a consensus with the President when he left the part of the state security under his personal influence, afterwards the president decided to withdraw ambassadors,” Khmaladze said.



Georgian people have already written down their important points

“The parliamentary elections in October 2012 put an end to the long war of Georgian people [against] evil,” Zaza Papuashvili, Georgian Dream’s Majoritarian Deputy for the Mtatsminda district of Tbilisi, said in an interview with Kvela Siakhle. Papuashvili said he feels happy that Georgians have not “broken” despite the intimidation. Expressing his respect towards Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili he said by entering the Georgian political arena Prime Minister has proved that Georgia is an “everlasting” country with “brilliant” patriots. He said people who used to be the main “robbers, murderers and thieves” say that they are the victims of “political persecution.”

“What do they call political persecution? Do I not have a right to interrogate you when you have committed a crime? Is it a persecution if I feel suspicious about your activities?” Papuashvili said, stressing that the new government is exercising their power in a professional manner. “The establishment of order needs justice, education and professionalism,” he added.