TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) Georgian lawmakers believe that exiled former leader Mikheil Saakashvili has not regretted his mistakes and is widely disliked in the country, wiping out chances of him becoming prime minister after the parliamentary elections in the fall.
On Monday, Georgian United National Movement leader Grigol Vashadze said that the opposition party and opposition movement, Strength is in Unity, would nominate Saakashvili for the post if they were victorious in the parliamentary elections scheduled for late October.
"Few people believe that he [Saakashvili] regrets everything," Roman Kakulia, chairman of the parliament's sector economy and economic policy committee, said.
Independent lawmaker Beka Natsvlishvili believes that Saakashvili will never become the prime minister of Georgia.
"His comic statements will not somehow affect the election environment. He will never be able to become the prime minister for two, four, or six years, since the Georgian people will no longer allow this," the lawmaker said.
Saakashvili on Monday welcomed the decision of the United National Movement to nominate him for the post of the prime minister and said he was ready to occupy the position for two years at most.
In late August, Saakashvili posted a video address on Facebook in which he thanked Ukraine, where he served in several government positions, for being his "second home" and said that it was time to return to his homeland. He mentioned that he was ready to solve past mistakes and serve his country. Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani told reporters commenting on this address that the ex-president would be detained at the border if he tried to return to the country.
Saakashvili, 52, served as the president of Georgia from 2004-2013. In 2013, he fled the country after being confronted with criminal prosecution by the new authorities. He entered Ukrainian politics in the spring of 2015, when then-President Petro Poroshenko granted him citizenship and appointed him the governor of the Black Sea coastal region of Odessa.
In October 2016, Poroshenko claimed that Saakashvili had failed to observe his pledges about the region's development and fired him. Saakashvili was eventually stripped of Ukrainian citizenship and exiled to Poland. Current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reinstated his citizenship in May 2019, let him return to Ukraine and appointed him as an adviser for reforms.
