Presidential Underdog ‘Debate’ on GPB

The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) began a series presidential debates on December 7.

The first debate featured four presidential hopefuls: Shalva Kuprashvili and Archil Ioseliani, both political unknowns, as well as Avtandil Margiani, who served as the deputy prime minister in the early 90s under Shevardnadze and Giorgi Shervashidze, a former commander of Shevardnadze-era interior troops.

Each participant had two minutes to elaborate his position before an opponent took the floor. An additional 30 seconds was then allotted for rebuttal of opponents’ remarks.

The “debate”, despite what the name might suggest, never showed much sign of actual debate. The four underdog contenders, instead preferred a more relaxed converstional approach.

Most of the leading opposition presidential contenders, including Levan Gachechiladze of the nine-party opposition coalition, Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of New Rights Party, and Shalva Natelashvili, leader of the Labor Party, have expressed a willingness to go head-to-head with only Mikheil Saakashvili on TV.

Saakashvili said in a televised interview on November 25 that he was amenable to “an issue-based debate.”