TBILISI, July 31 – The leadership struggle in Georgia’s largest opposition party continues as United National Movement chair Tina Bokuchava questioned why a key party meeting was held while she was away from Tbilisi.
The UNM political council met on Thursday and decided to hold a party congress on August 5. About 300 delegates will attend, and the congress is expected to approve a temporary leadership model for the party.
Bokuchava said in a video address that she had informed the party’s secretary general two or three weeks earlier that she would be out of town with her family. She said those organising the political council meeting knew she would be absent and questioned why both the council meeting and the congress had been scheduled so quickly.
UNM official Irakli Pavlenishvili said Bokuchava remained one of the party’s important leaders and that members would have preferred her to attend. But he said the likely date of the meeting had been announced publicly several days earlier and many party members had travelled from Georgia’s regions to take part.
The disagreement comes as the UNM prepares for another leadership change. Former president and party founder Mikheil Saakashvili has publicly backed television presenter Nanuka Zhorzholiani as his preferred candidate to lead the party.
Analyst Zaal Anjaparidze told Rezonansi that Bokuchava’s influence appeared to have weakened after Saakashvili named his preferred successor. He said the latest dispute suggested a deeper conflict rather than a simple scheduling problem.
