Page 8 - GEORptSep18

He is allowed to run as an independent candidate, but wants to ensure his name and his party’s name appear on the ballot paper together, so plans to change his name to Zurab Girchi Japaridze ahead of the vote.
In the statement, Japaridze claimed that Georgian electoral legislation was “tailor-made” for big parties, and “hinders the entry of small players into the political market”.
He appealed to the Georgian justice ministry to make the name change in time for him to appear on the ballot paper under his new name. President Giorgi Margvelashvili recently set October 28 as the date for the presidential election . Japaridze added that he was aware he would bear the name Girchi for life, as Georgians are only allowed to change their name once.
Girchi was founded in November 2015, when Japaridze and four fellow MPs split from the United National Movement (UNM). The name was chosen to evoke freshness and greenery.
2.5 Ruling Georgian Dream says it won’t nominate a candidate for presidential race
Georgia’s ruling party said on August 6 that it will not nominate a candidate for the October presidential elections, and party officials have not yet indicated which candidate it will back.
However, MP Salome Zurabishvili on Monday also announced her plans to run for the presidency at a press conference in Tbilisi, raising speculation that she would be Georgian Dream’s preferred candidate.
Georgians go to the polls to elect a new president on October 28. This will be the last time they elect their president directly, following controversial changes to the constitution that will see the president chosen by the 300 members of the College of Electors.
Speaking to journalists on August 6, Zurabishvili outlined her vision for a Georgia within Europe. “Georgia is a European state with its values and past,” she said, Georgia Today reported. “We want the EU, we want Nato — these should not be dead slogans, we need to become Europeans in our daily life. Our ancestors, who had been building the state of Georgia, were convinced that Georgia had no other prospect.”
Zurabishvili added that it had been difficult to come to the decision to run for the presidency, which will require her to give up her French citizenship. Earlier in the day, Georgian Dream executive secretary and parliament speaker Irakli Kobakhidze said his party did not plan to nominate a candidate but that it might support an independent.
Incumbent President Giorgi Margvelashvili was backed by Georgian Dream in the last presidential election in 2013. But he indicated this month that he wouldn’t again have the support of the party, speaking of tensions between himself and Georgian Dream. Margvelashvili hasn’t yet announced whether he will run for re-election this autumn.
8 GEORGIA Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com