May 16, 2025 - The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization, said on May 15 that the ruling Georgian Dream party abruptly withdrew its support for his reelection bid after he hired Tea Maisuradze, Georgia’s recently resigned Ambassador to the Czech Republic, to work on his election campaign.

In an interview with Formula TV, Pololikashvili said that the ruling party had initially endorsed his candidacy on January 25, sending a letter that described him as a “genius in the field of tourism.” However, they later withdrew their support.

Pololikashvili linked the withdrawal to his hiring Maisuradze, which he said caused “hysteria” within the Georgian Dream. Party officials, including Mamuka Mdinaradze, demanded Maisuradze’s immediate dismissal, according to Pololikashvili. He recalled responding, “You can’t just fire someone like that in a day,” noting that he had worked with Maisuradze for eight years.

According to him, the dispute led Maisuradze to quit voluntarily. He said that his relationship with the GD has deteriorated since and the party stopped helping him gather votes for his election campaign.

Maisuradze, 42, served as Georgia’s ambassador to the Czech Republic until resigning on December 2, 2024. She joined several diplomats who left their posts amid the GD government’s November 28 decision to halt the EU accession process. This decision was widely regarded as a U-turn on European integration by the party, leading to months of anti-regime protests that continue to this day.

Maisuradze addressed Pololikashvili’s interview on May 16, stating that “…Anyone who serves Georgia’s national interests, rather than Russia’s, is unacceptable to the regime.”

She also rejected GD’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s statement that electing Pololikashvili for a third term would not be “particularly democratic,” pointing out that such a decision has precedent.

Pololikashvili on GD’s Alleged Deal with UAE

When asked if his withdrawal from the candidacy was related to a rumored GD’s deal to support the UAE candidate in exchange for the extradition of Giorgi Bachiashvili, an ex-aide of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili – who reportedly might be in the country- Pololikashvili declined to speculate.

“I don’t want to gossip. I don’t know whom I was traded for,” he said, calling the situation “a separate tragedy, if you ask me – if this is what’s really happening.”

Pololikashvili called the decline of the GD government’s support “the end of Georgia’s reputation on the international stage.”

At the end of the interview, Pololikashvili was asked why he hadn’t commented on recent developments, such as GD’s U-turn and the alleged foreign policy shift, on which he declined to answer, stating that his current goal is “to understand why my candidacy was withdrawn, at what cost, and why it was done so quietly.”

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