The former Prime Minister of Georgia, who founded his own party "For Georgia" after the scandalous resignation, Georgy Gakharia, calls into the debate his main competitors in the Tbilisi mayoral elections – the current mayor, representatives of the Georgian Dream Kakha Kaladze and the leader of the largest opposition party "National Movement" Nika Melia.
Gakharia announced his decision to run the day before, becoming the third Ratin candidate for the post of mayor of Tbilisi. According to polls, the party "For Georgia" is in third place in popularity after the" Georgian Dream "and the"National Movement".
Elections in Georgia will be held on October 2. Residents of 64 cities and districts will choose mayors and deputies of local advisory bodies – sakrebulo.
To win the election, a candidate must receive at least 50% of the votes of the capital's voters, otherwise the two candidates with the best rating will go to the second round.
"Today, the Georgian Dream organization, obsessed with the desire to preserve power, is becoming more and more similar to the National Movement and thus brings us back to the past. Leaving them alone is dangerous for the future of the country! I challenge Kakha Kaladze and Nikanor Melia to a debate in any format!", Gakharia wrote on his page in the social network.
After it became known about Gakhari's decision to run, another scandal arose, caused by the statement of the chairman of the ruling party, Irakli Kobakhidze. He claimed that a meeting took place between Gakharia and Kaladze, at which the former prime minister allegedly asked for money in exchange for refusing to stand as a candidate.
"There was an attempt to communicate with an intermediary on a financial topic. There was a conversation that in the case of financial assistance, he [Gakharia] would not nominate his candidacy, to which an appropriate response was given…
After that, there were calls from his side, and he demanded a meeting. The meeting between him and Kaladze took place, he told Kaladze that he was going to nominate a candidate, to which Kaladze replied that he was not interested in it," Kobakhidze presented the situation in this way.
Kaladze himself also said that he had met with Gakharia.
"There were several calls… He said he wanted to meet. I replied that I would be at the city hall and he came to the city hall. The meeting took place yesterday morning, a few minutes before the start of the government meeting. To be honest, I didn't understand anything – the purpose, the reason for the meeting. The only thing that was said at the meeting was that he would stand for election and did not want me to find out about it on TV. I decided to say it myself," Kaladze said.
Levan Dolidze, a member of the Gakharia party, the first number of the electoral list of the For Georgia party, commented on these statements.
"First of all, I will say that this is a question of relations between two men and two people, when a decent person brings up to date his former colleague with whom he had a decent relationship… The accusations that were voiced yesterday are actually lies, absurdity and stupidity," Dolidze said.

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