Irina Sarishvili

Irina Sarishvili, the only female presidential candidate, has been in the Georgian politics since late 80s when joined the National Democratic Party.
 
Sarishvili is running a low-key campaign. Sarishvili said she would not call on voters to cast ballot on her, but instead would mainly call on them not to mark number 5 in the ballot papers, which is Mikheil Saakashvili number in the election ballot.
 
Sarishvili, who will turn 45 in January, graduated the Tbilisi State University’s faculty of English language and literature. She was married to a prominent activist and leader of National Democratic Party, Giorgi Chanturia, who was assassinated in 1994. Sarishvili was slightly injured in that very same attack in downtown Tbilisi. She became the leader of the National Democratic Party after Chanturia’s death. At that time she was a member of the parliament.
 
In 1993 she also held a position of the vice-premier of Georgia for few months. She was re-elected in the parliament in 1995 but her party failed to clear a 7% electoral threshold in the 1999 polls. Ironically, while in the parliament, she was one of the initiators of increasing the threshold from 5 to 7%.
 
In one of her most controversial moves, Sarishvili tried to gain seats in the parliament for her party by allying with then President Shevardnadze’s party ahead of the 2003 elections. The Rose Revolution, however, shattered plans and consequently she was sacked by her fellow party members from the position of the National Democratic Party chairmanship.
 
Sarishvili kept a low profile since then; she, however, attempted a political comeback by establishing a Hope party in 2006, which allied with some other small parties and organizations which were united under the umbrella of ex-security chief Igor Giorgadze’s Justice Party. Giorgadze is wanted by Georgia for alleged terrorist attempt against Eduard Shevardnadze back in 1995. She also became head of the Giorgadze’s charitable organization in Georgia. In September, 2006 dozen of activists and leaders of the grouping were arrested and charged with coup plotting. Recently, Sarishvili announced that she was distancing herself from Giorgadze, citing that the latter was “no longer an active political figure.”
 
Sarishvili is the only presidential candidate advocating for Georgia’s neutrality; all the others are in favor of Georgia’s NATO integration.