November 29 – Even if you not qualified to run football, you can be president – in Georgia that is.
Georgia’s ruling party has controversially picked former international and Manchester City striker Mikheil Kavelashvili as its candidate to lead the country, sparking widespread protests.
Kavelashvili, an anti-Western hard-liner, was prevented from running for president of the country’s FA next year because he has no higher education.
Despite this the 53-year-old will now likely become Georgia’s next president being all but certain to win the December 14 vote.
Current president Salome Zourabichvili, whose six-year term expires next month, was elected by popular vote. But the Georgian Dream party has approved constitutional changes that abolished the direct election of the president and replaced it with a vote by a 300-seat electoral college consisting of members of parliament, municipal councils and regional legislatures.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech.
During his footballing career, Kavelashvili played for the Georgian national team, Dinamo Tbilisi and briefly for Manchester City in the mid-1990s.
On Wednesday, Georgian Dream supremo Bidzina Ivanishvili presented Kavelashvili’s candidacy to parliament, describing him as “one of the most prominent members of our political team” and praising his “significant contribution to protecting Georgia’s national interests and strengthening the country’s sovereignty”.
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