TBILIS, December 15. /TASS/. Georgia’s incumbent President Salome Zourabichvili should have resigned if she disagrees with the government’s policy, President-elect Mikhail Kavelashvili said.
"If I have a different viewpoint and distance myself from the policy of the executive authorities, but cannot [oppose the government] under the constitution, if I respect my country, my homeland, my people, then I refuse from presidency to defend the constitution, to be a lead for my fellow countrymen, I step down and begin political opposition from another viewpoint," he said in an interview with the Imedi television channel.
The presidential election was held at Georgia’s parliament on December 14. The country’s new president was for the first time elected by an electoral college and not through a popular vote. The electoral college consisted of 300 members, including 150 members of the Georgian Parliament, 21 and 20 representatives of the Supreme Councils of Adjara and Abkhazia, respectively, as well as deputies from local authorities. Mikhail Kavelashvili, a former footballer and an ex-parliament member, was the only presidential candidate backed by the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party. The opposition has not recognized the results of the parliamentary vote held on October 26. He was elected the country’s sixth president by 224 college votes and will be inaugurated on December 29.
Incumbent President Salome Zourabichvili has been in open opposition to the ruling party over the past two to three years. She spoke up against many laws passed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and tried to consolidate the opposition ahead of the October 26 parliamentary elections.