Georgian Dream Picks Ivanishvili As Top Candidate For October Poll

TBILISI -- The ruling Georgian Dream party on September 10 selected Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire and former prime minister, as its lead candidate for a parliamentary election on October 26.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, a close Ivanishvili ally, was designated the party's No. 2 candidate while Irakli Gharibashvili, chairman of the party and former prime minister, is third.

The list's top 10 also includes other party leaders, including party chairman Irakli Gharibashvili, who previously served as prime minister, and Olympic athletes Lasha Talakhadze, a weightlifter, and Geno Petriashvili, a freestyle wrestler.

Ivanishvili, who served as prime minister from 2012-2013, has been honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party since December. He has played a major role in a political crisis surrounding Georgia's law on "foreign agents," which was pushed through by the government earlier this year despite large-scale protests.

In a speech in April, Ivanishvili lashed out against the West, saying the foreign agent law was necessary to defend Georgian sovereignty against attempts by a "global war party" to drag Georgia into confrontation with Russia.

The United States and other Western nations expressed concern about the law, which requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "agents of foreign influence."

Tens of thousands of Georgians demonstrated against the bill despite a brutal crackdown and violent retaliation. Most protesters referred to the bill as "the Russian law" because of its similarity to decade-old legislation in Russia that has contributed to a fierce clampdown on independent media and public dissent there.

The European Union reacted to the enactment of the bill by pausing EU accession negotiations, while the United States opted to launch a "comprehensive review" of relations with Georgia.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili last month signed a decree announcing October 26 as the day for the parliamentary polls, calling the elections a choice between "being Russia's slave or cooperation with Europe."

Polls show that Georgian Dream remains the country's single most popular party ahead of the October election.