UNM dismisses reports on electing ex-Pres. Margvelashvili as a new party chair

The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party has dismissed reports by Rustavi 2 that former President Giorgi Margvelashvili will replace Nika Melia as the chair of the party, while the latter will quit the UNM. 

Melia said earlier today that the ruling Georgian Dream  (GD) party is behind the “disinformation” which aimed to “recover a recent scandalous audio recording between the ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili and a Russian oligarch on evading sanctions.” 

Melia claimed that the country’s State Security Service “instructed affiliated Imedi and Rustavi 2 TV channels” to spread the “fake,” 

Rustavi 2 claimed today that Margvelashvili received the offer from imprisoned third President Mikheil Mikheil Saakashvili personally, and that the party has already made a decision on his appointment as the party chair. 

Earlier this month Margvelashvili visited Kyiv along with the UNM members.