U.S. President Joe Biden has disinvited Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze from the September 25 reception for world leaders and senior U.N. officials, the Georgian government administration confirmed to Civil.ge The Georgian delegation, headed by PM Kobakhidze is attending the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.
Tea Tsulukiani, the longest-serving minister under the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) government and current Minister of Culture, said he was stepping down from the cabinet to prepare for her MP role. She is slated sixth on GD’s election list of MP candidates.
The opposition “For Georgia” party, led by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, has presented the front-runners of its electoral list for the October parliamentary elections. Gakharia tops the list, while other front-benchers include former government officials and GD MPs. Six out of the top twenty candidates are women.
Nika Gvaramia, co-founder of the opposition “Ahali” party and a key figure in the Coalition for Change, announced that he will not be on the Coalition’s candidate list, pledging to make room for “the new people.” “I remain the leader of the campaign, I remain the leader of the coalition, and I remain the leader of the Ahali Party. However, I want the path to Parliament open for new people,” Gvaramia said at a special briefing.
Georgia’s 4th President Giorgi Margvelashvili joined Strong Georgia, an opposition alliance led by “Lelo for Georgia” and uniting four parties. Lelo’s leader, Mamuka Khazaradze, praised former president Margvelashvili for his principal stance and for safeguarding the President’s institution.
Giga Bokeria, one of the leaders and founders of the Federalist Party, says his team will not participate in the 2024 parliamentary elections and calls on his supporters to take part in the polls. Bokeria also urged supporters to vote for a pro-Western force within the opposition, whose foreign-political orientation has no question marks and “which is not under the political influence of Saakashvili-Kezerashvili.”
U.S. senators have called it “unconscionable” that Transparency International-Georgia Director Eka Gigauri is being “punished” by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for her recent testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding anti-NGO laws. The Senators’ statement comes after the Bureau qualified TI-Georgia, a corruption watchdog, along with another public movement, Vote for Europe, and their leaders as “political actors.”
The de facto leaders of occupied Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania and Alexander Ankvab, addressed the opponents of closer relations with Russia at the Coordination Council of Law Enforcement Agencies meeting on September 23. They criticized their perception of Russia as an occupying power and called against drawing parallels between the Russian and Georgian governments.