Ruling party official says Bidzina Ivanishvili topping party’s electoral list highlights importance of upcoming elections

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26 were in some ways “more significant” than the elections in 2012 when the Georgian Dream party came into power.

In his remarks following the presentation of the ruling party’s top twenty candidates for the upcoming elections, Mdinaradze highlighted that because of the significance of the elections, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and Honorary Chair of the ruling party, was topping the party’s electoral list.

“In some ways, this is an even more important election since 2012. That is why Bidzina Ivanishvili tops the electoral list. Today, the issue is as follows: saving the country and peace has become a priority, and we see the fight against it, especially from outside the country”, Mdinaradze said.

The ruling party official claimed that the opposition United National Movement party and other opposition parties represented the “agent network”.

“We are opposing a very powerful force. We stand against the Global War Party, which seeks to use this country as a second and third front [amid the ongoing war in Ukraine] and as a platform to weaken Russia. While this might be a good goal, it should not come at the cost of destroying our country”, Mdinaradze concluded.