Ruling party to name Energy Minister as Tbilisi mayoral candidate
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, June 6
Members of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party have finished inter-party consultations over choosing their candidate for the post of Tbilisi Mayor; their candidate will be the second Vice-Premier and Energy Minister, Kakha Kaladze.
The information was released by the Vice-Speaker of the parliament and the majority member, Gia Volski, after the closed meeting of the GD.
“We think that Kaladze will be our candidate. We have not discussed any other alternatives,” Volski said, adding that the final decision will be made only at the political council meeting.
The third Vice-Premier and Education Minister, Aleksandre Jejelava, says that Kaladze is the best Tbilisi mayoral candidate of the majority.
“For me, Kaladze is an acceptable candidate. Our party will present the candidate in the near future,” he added.
Zurab Alavidze, the Minister of Infrastructure, says that Kaladze’s candidacy has no alternative.
Current Mayor of Tbilis, Davit Narmania says that Kaladze is his friend and he fully supports his candidacy.
“It is better not to make any early statements. We are waiting for very important and interesting news about this issue and about me as well,” he said.
According to unofficial information, Narmania’s candidacy will be named by the GD party for the position of Auditor General. However, the Mayor says that consultations are still underway regarding this issue.
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.
