Georgian Opposition Leader Alasania Forms New Party
Irakli Alasania holds up a leaflet for his new party.
July 17, 2009
TBILISI -- Georgian opposition leader Irakli Alasania has announced the formation of a new political party, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reports.
Alasania, Georgia's former ambassador to the United Nations, said his party will be called Our Georgia -- Free Democrats.
At the party's founding congress on July 16, Alasania said, "We will launch consultations with other political forces, so that we jointly carry out the necessary legislative changes -- those that will ensure creation of a just system."
Reports say the new party is made up of many former diplomats and politicians who were former allies of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Alasania, 35, described the party as an alliance and said it had begun "several initiatives aimed at making constitutional changes and changes within the electoral system."
He said the party will soon inform the public about "concrete ways in which our electoral system should be reformed."
Alasania was the Georgian envoy at the UN from 2006 until December 2008 and previously served as the chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government-in-exile.