Lawmaker to Join Okruashvili’s Planned Party

Lawmaker Giorgi Tsagareishvili, who is currently in the moderate opposition Industrialist Party, has confirmed that he will move to ex-Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili’s new party which is expected to be established in September.

Tsagareishvili, in an interview with the Georgian daily, Rezonansi, on August 27, also claimed that the party would have a firm power base in the parliament. “We will have lots of supporters in the parliament,” he said.

Georgian media sources have also suggested that the currently non-aligned MP, Koka Guntsadze, and some lawmakers from the ruling National Movement party, will also join Okruashvili. MP Kakha Kukava, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, has reportedly refused to join the new party.

“Georgia without Saakashvili – is the major concept of the new party,” Tsagareishvili told Rezonansi. “We are currently working in various different directions and we will have a comprehensive platform.”

In the same issue, Rezonansi published an interview with Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the leader of the opposition Tavisupleba (Freedom) Party. He claims that Okruashvili’s new party will be in opposition to the ruling National Movement party, but not to President Saakashvili.

“This will be a replica of the Russian model,” Gamsakhurdia said, referring to the existence of several pro-Putin parties in Russia. “We will have two pro-presidential parties – one will be a relatively small group of Okruashvili and another larger group, I mean, the National Movement – both competing with each other.”

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