Strategi Agmashenebli says it won’t support opposition candidate for public advocate

Giorgi Vashadze, the head of the Strategy Agmashenebeli parliamentary opposition party, on Tuesday said his party would not vote for opposition candidates for the vacant position of the country’s new public defender, following the nomination of Levan Ioseliani, an MP from the Citizens opposition party, for the post. 

 

Vashadze said politicians affiliated to either the ruling party or the opposition should not be approved to the position by the parliament, saying his party would vote for the candidates proposed by the civil sector. 

 

The ruling party said last year it had conceded the right to nominate the candidates for the public defender to the opposition, but said it would support an “unbiased” candidate, different from the previous public defender Nino Lomjaria, whose term expired in December. 

 

The GD claimed Lomjaria was affiliated with “radical opposition groups”, while the former’s work was largely praised by international organizations and domestic NGOs.