Labor Party Leader Enters Tbilisi Mayoral Race

Natelashvili addressing anti-government rally in Tbilisi last July.

Leader of the radical opposition Labor Party Shalva Natelashvili announced on September 11 his intention to run in the Tbilisi mayoral race in the October 5 local self-governance elections.

“I am ready to fight for the Tbilisi Mayoral Office… We will spare no efforts to hit a powerful blow to Saakashvili’s regime,” Natelashvili said at a news conference on September 11.

Natelashvili also said that he wants to challenge “our shameful President [Mikheil Saakashvili] in TV debates,” and in a sign of this challenge he threw down a white glove in front of the TV cameras present at the news conference.

To become the Tbilisi City Mayor a candidate must first run for membership in the Tbilisi Sakrebulo. Natelashvili said that he will run for Sakrebulo membership in Tbilisi’s Nadzaladevi three-mandate constituency.

There are now a total of five contenders in the Tbilisi mayoral race: Shalva Natelashvili; Koba Davitashvili, nominated by an election coalition of the Republican and Conservative party; ex-Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili, who leads the Georgia’s Way opposition party; beer magnate Gogi Topadze, nominated by the Industrialist opposition party; and incumbent Mayor Gigi Ugulava, the candidate from the ruling National Movement party.

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