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Ex-French diplomat unlikely favourite for Georgian president
TBILISI, Oct 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – When Salome Zurabishvili arrived in
Georgia in 2004 as French ambassador, few could have predicted that 15 years
later she would be favourite to be elected president of the ex-Soviet nation.
The Caucasus country votes Sunday in a hotly contested race that has
pitted Zurabishvili, supported by the ruling Georgian Dream party, against
opposition-backed Grigol Vashadze.
The position of president will be largely ceremonial following a change to
the constitution but the polls are seen as a test for the increasingly
unpopular Georgian Dream.
Zurabishvili’s unorthodox path to the candidacy has also generated
interest.
“I always thought that one day I will help — in some function, in some
capacity — this country to move to democracy,” Zurabishvili told AFP in an
interview conducted in English.
But “decades ago, as a young French diplomat, I couldn’t have imagined I
will be running for the presidency of my ancestral homeland, which back then
was firmly in the Soviet empire’s claws.”
The stylish 66-year-old, currently an independent MP, is the daughter of
refugees who fled Georgia in 1921 for Paris after the country’s annexation by
the Red Army.
Her career in France’s foreign ministry culminated in her posting to
Tbilisi.
From that position former president Mikheil Saakashvili appointed her
foreign minister — after approving the move with then French leader Jacques
Chirac.
But Zurabishvili quickly made enemies in the ranks of the parliamentary
majority, with MPs and a number of senior diplomats publicly accusing her of
arrogance and impulsivity.
She was sacked after a year on the job, though thousands took to the
streets of the capital to protest her dismissal.
She then joined the opposition and became one of Saakashvili’s fiercest
critics.
In her book “A Woman for Two Countries”, published in France after her
firing, she wrote: “Now, I have to engage in a political battle, which has
never attracted me, which I never practised, which is being imposed on me.”
She speaks Georgian with a strong French accent and frequent grammatical
mistakes.
– Her main opponent –
Opinion polls put opposition candidate Vashadze almost even with
Zurabishvili, who renounced her French citizenship to be able to stand.
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Vashadze is a respected career diplomat who served in the Soviet foreign
ministry where he helped craft the Soviet-US treaty on the reduction and
limitation of strategic offensive arms.
The 60-year-old was Saakashvili’s foreign minister from 2008-2012.
Vashadze is married to the world-renowned prima ballerina Nina
Ananiashvili, who has been described in the foreign press as one of the
greatest ballet dancers of all time.
Both candidates have campaigned on similar promises to bring Georgia
closer to full membership of the European Union and NATO.
The country of some 4.5 million people has knocked on NATO’s doors for
more than a decade but the bloc has refused to put Tbilisi on a formal
membership path, despite a pledge in 2008 that it will at some point be
admitted to the club.
Vashadze, backed by the United National Movement founded by Saakashvili
and 10 other opposition groups, has been boosted by discontent over the
government’s failure to tackle poverty.
Over a fraught campaign he has lashed out against what he says is official
graft and political meddling in the judiciary.
He has also criticised the “informal oligarch rule” of Bidzina
Ivanishvili, the billionaire leader of the Georgian Dream party.
On the campaign trail Zurabishvili and the Georgian Dream have slammed the
United National Movement for alleged human rights abuses during its previous
stretch in power.
– Last direct ballot –
The vote is Georgia’s last direct leadership poll as the Black Sea nation
transitions to a parliamentary form of governance following a controversial
constitutional reform.
The inauguration of a new president will pave the way for the new
constitution to enter into force, making the head of state a largely
ceremonial figure.
Georgia’s next president will be elected in 2024 by a 300-member electoral
college.
Adopted in September 2017, the constitutional change was protested by all
opposition parties which have denounced it as favouring the ruling party.
Georgia’s outgoing President, Giorgi Margvelashvili, refused to run for a
second term, saying he is not interested in assuming the reduced role.
Over 3.5 million people are eligible to vote in the election which will be
monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Polls open at 0400 GMT and close at 1600 GMT, with results expected to
start coming in overnight.
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