Ivanishvili: Georgian Dream nominee unrivalled at October elections
By Nazrin Gadimova
Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is confident that the presidential candidate of the Georgian Dream ruling coalition, Giorgi Margvelashvili, has no serious rivals at the upcoming presidential elections.
"Our candidate, Giorgi Margvelashvili, fortunately or unfortunately has no real competitors up to date," Ivanishvili said at a press conference on September 4. "In my opinion, he will win in the first round by a big margin."
However, Ivanishvili welcomed the fact that a large number of candidates will participate in the forthcoming election.
At the same time, Ivanishvili promised to inform about his retirement from politics after he is sure that the presidential elections are successful. According to Ivanishvili, currently he has three duties: the government (prime minister), the political one (the leader of Georgian Dream) and the public (active citizen).
"I'm going to give up the first two functions and spend all unallocated resources on the third function (social)," the prime minister said. But Ivanishvili did not rule out that he could return to politics.
Ivanishvili also touched on the issue of the institution of criminal proceedings against President Mikheil Saakashvili after the presidential election.
Earlier, the Georgian Ministry of Justice, the Prime Minister and the Chief Prosecutor stated that the Georgian President may be called in for questioning as part of the investigation into various cases, including the Georgian-Russian war in August 2008.
According to Ivanishvili, in case of holding Saakashvili criminally accountable, this should not cause major public resonance. Ivanishvili said this is a normal process that happens not only in Georgia, but also in European countries, adding that "we are a developing country and presidents in developing countries as a rule dominate more and make mistakes", therefore, this process "is absolutely correct".
The number of candidates for presidency who applied to the Georgian Central Election Commission for registration has reached 45, while four of them have been denied registration.
To be registered, a candidate must collect at least 26,530 signatures (0.75 percent of the total number of voters). The deadline for submitting signatures is September 17, and the date when recent changes to them can be made is September 22.
Georgian Dream representative Giorgi Margvelashvili, former ruling United National Movement's candidate Davit Bakradze, Labour Party's candidate Shalva Natelashvili, Christian-Democratic Movement's representative Giorgi Targamadze and others have already applied for registration to the Central Election Commission.
According to the electoral commission, representatives of Democratic Movement - United Georgia have applied to the CEC for registration of former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze as a candidate for the presidential election.
According to the CEC, there are 3.5 million voters in Georgia.
The 2013 presidential election in Georgia is scheduled for October. This will be the 6th presidential election after the country's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The last one, held on January 5, 2008, resulted in the election of Mikheil Saakashvili for his second and final presidential term. According to the constitution, Saakashvili cannot run for a third consecutive term.