UNM opposition member announces run for party chair, vows “end” to internal divisions

Levan Khabeishvili, a member of the United National Movement opposition party, on Wednesday confirmed he would run for the chairmanship of the largest opposition group in Georgia after having initially dismissed reports on the intent.

In a briefing, Khabeishvili said he had made the decision after days of consultations with “friends and colleagues” and following the public calls by several members for a change in party leadership last Wednesday. 

• United National Movement opposition members call for change in party leadership

The opposition politician claimed if elected he would end “internal divisions” in the party which ran the country for nine years before its defeat by the current Georgian Dream government in the 2012 parliamentary elections, and said the UNM was “in need of a leader who will unite, and not divide” the party. 

Speaking to the media, Khabeishvili also proposed the creation of a new office inside the party that would bring together political players, healthcare professionals, organisations and individuals “worried about the health” of Mikheil Saakashvili, the currently imprisoned former president of the country and founder of the party.

An incumbent head of the UNM, Nika Melia, said last week that the elections for the post would be “very comfortable” for him, providing opportunities “to sincerely speak with our supporters over a number of [problematic] questions which have accumulated over the years”. 

I will do my best to reshape the party as the strongest and the most uncompromising platform in the fight against oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili [the founder of the ruling party and the former prime minister of Georgia]. I will return the party to its supporters [and] make it stronger again”, Khabeishvili pledged. 

The incumbent chair of the party, Nika Melia, has also announced his plans to run for the post after criticising his party members for the unexpected calls of leadership elections.

Melia, who has held the position since 2020, claimed last week he himself had offered intra-party elections a month ago and said the members who called for the new leadership challenge had been “well aware” of his proposal. “Time will show what was the real motivation of the [unexpected] briefing”, Melia said last Wednesday. 

Prior to the developments, several activists of the party had openly accused Melia of being “inactive” in his efforts to ensure the release of Saakashvili from prison, which reportedly led to a clash between the party head and its members in their Tbilisi office in late September.