Georgian president's party to hold primaries for presidential elections
The party of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, United National Movement, is going to hold primaries to determine its presidential candidate, parliamentary minority leader David Bakradze announced in a show on Rustavi 2 TV channel on June 12.
Previously it was conceded to choose the candidate by an intra-party agreement, Bakradze said.
According to him, the party decided not to refuse introducing innovations because of the arrest of the Secretary General of UNM Vano Merabishvili who was one of the actual participants in the primaries in order to show that the life of the party is not over with his arrest and it continue its activities in the future. Merabishvili was arrested on charges of abuse of office.
As for his own possible involvement in the primaries, Bakradze said that he sees himself more as a leader of the parliamentary minority. However, he did not rule out participation in the primary elections, promising to decide on this issue as soon as possible.