davit_bakradze

Davit Bakradze, one of the National Movement’s four candidates for president. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Davit Bakradze, parliamentary leader of the National Movement, defended his frontrunner status Sunday with a third primary election win.

566 UNM delegates met in Telavi, a town in the eastern Kakheti region, to listen to a debate between Davit Bakradze, former Speaker of Parliament, Shota Malashkia, Giorgi Baramidze and Zurab Japaridze.

Afterwards, they cast their votes for who they would like to see as a candidate for president, and during a ceremony Bakradze was declared the winner, although no information was given about the size of Bakradze’s majority. Neither did the party publish this later on its webpage.

UNM has made the primaries part of its election campaign, and each debate has a different topic. This time, the topic was human rights and order.

“Today we have seen open debates about difficult and painful issues,” Bakradze said. “But it is the strength of the party and the people when people listens and then elects. There is no difficult topic if you talk to people.”

UNM will hold three more conferences and then announce its candidate at the end of July.

The Georgian Dream coalition announced Education Minister Giorgi Margvelashvili as its candidate.

The presidential election will be held on October 27, 2013.