Tina Bokuchava, leader of the United National Movement (UNM), has explained the reasons for her absence from the party’s political council meeting. According to her, she had left the city with her family in advance and informed the party’s secretary general about this two weeks ago.
“Accordingly, the organizers of yesterday’s political council meeting were informed about this. Why they rushed to schedule the political council meeting, and subsequently the party congress, is a question that, in my view, should be addressed directly to them.
Yesterday, I received numerous calls and messages from journalists regarding this matter. Naturally, I did not want to leave inquiries from independent media representatives unanswered, so I deemed it necessary to inform the public that I am out of town, that this trip was planned in advance, and that the secretary general of the party, as well as the organizers of the meeting, were aware of it,” Bokuchava stated.
The party, for its part, maintains that holding the political council meeting and the subsequent congress was a matter of urgency. Khatia Dekanoidze noted that the congress needed to be organized as quickly as possible.
“As far as I know, nothing prevented participation in the meetings. I cannot comment on technical details; however, the congress had to be planned and held as swiftly as possible. Therefore, in my view, convening the political council was necessary, not least because the mandate of the party’s current leadership had already expired.
I am not a member of the political council and was not in Tbilisi. Yesterday I spoke with my colleagues. I believe the upcoming congress will be very important, and the idea of establishing a horizontal governing body to lead the party during the transition period is acceptable,” Dekanoidze said.
Irakli Pavlenishvili, for his part, stated that many party members had traveled from the regions specifically to attend the meeting.
“Of course, we would have liked Ms. Tina to attend the meeting, but she was unable to make it. At the same time, it was known that the political council would take place at the end of July—this was mentioned publicly on multiple occasions, including by Mikheil Saakashvili on social media. Therefore, it was not a surprise. Many of our members traveled specifically from the regions for this date. Everyone was informed: some were able to come, others were not,” Pavlenishvili stated.
As a reminder, the meeting of the United National Movement’s political council took place yesterday and lasted about two hours. Tina Bokuchava did not participate. The party congress has been scheduled for August 5 at 15:00.