Koba Davitashvili, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, announced on November 15 that he is quitting the party.
?But this does not mean that I am quitting politics. I am going to actively cooperate with Republicans and Conservative Parties [the two parties have a bloc in the Parliament] and I am going to stay in the Sakrebulo [Tbilisi City Council],? Davitashvili said at a news conference.
Davitashvili became a Tbilisi Sakrebulo member after the October 5 local elections. He ran for Sakrebulo as leader of the Conservative and Republican parties? election bloc.
There have been speculations about an anticipated split in the Conservative Party because of disagreements between the two leaders – Davitashvili and MP Kakha Kukava.
Davitashvili, who was Saakashvili close ally before 2004 when he broke with the National Movement party, has become one of the most popular opposition leaders. But his reputation suffered a painful blow when television stations aired hidden video footage in October that showed Davitashvili alegedly taking money from a person in exchange for putting him on the party-list ahead of local elections. Davitashvili said that the USD 20 000 that he received was a donation, and denied that the money was meant to include the sponsor in the party-list.
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