PM Garibashvili: UNM head Melia to be removed from post soon

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the current head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party,, Nika Melia, will soon be removed from the post by the decision of arrested former president Mikheil Saakashvili. 

“We have the information ,” Garibashvili said earlier today. 

He has stated several days that Melia and Saakashvili strongly dislike each other. 

Garibashvili also said that Melia has a ‘zero chance’ to win the Tbilisi mayoral race on October 30. 

Speaking about Saakashvili, Garibashvili asserted that ‘he is trying to imitate Hitker, but he is a fake Hitler,’ adding that it is a ‘shame and a tragedy that the man was running the country for nine years.’ 

Garibashvili has encouraged voters to participate in the run-offs to ‘finally end the UNM, which had destroyed the country.’ 

The municipal election run-offs will take place in 20 of 64 election constituencies, in which the ruling party and the UNM opposition candidates will compete in 17 constituencies. 

Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike since his detention in Tbilisi on October 1, says that he returned to Georgia, after eight years in political exile, to help his United National Movement party replace the ‘pro-Russian Georgian Dream government.’  He was convicted in Georgia in absentia for abuse of authority back in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison. Saakashvili has also been charged with four other offences as of today. The latest charge, for illegally crossing the border from Ukraine to Georgia, was filed earlier this week.