Mamuka Mdinaradze, a head of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the state legislature, has stated that the GD was ready to make concessions over the new public defender, but stressed that the party would not “tolerate” ultimatums over the question and the candidate who “had been caught in political activeness”. 

“We will be as much inclined to compromise, oriented to the consensus, in order to fulfill the European Union recommendation, but if they [the opposition] chooses ultimatums to nominate a person who is clearly politically biased, with low qualifications, that is another topic. We are ready to talk about the rest of the questions and I hope that we will agree on a common candidate”, Mdinaradze said and noted that “we cannot take responsibility for the opposition's share, but we will try to reach a compromise in order to fulfill the European recommendation”. 

"You know that we will not present a candidate. We have left that privilege to the opposition, although we were under no obligation to do so, but we have not made it a subject of speculation”, Mdinaradze said. 

The term of the current ombudswoman expires in December. The civil sector has nominated five candidates to the post, including the current deputy public defender.