Former Manchester City footballer candidate for President of Georgia

(Patria) - Georgia's ruling party has selected former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as its presidential candidate for the December 14 elections, party chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili announced yesterday.

Georgian Dream, which opponents accuse of a pro-Russian authoritarian shift, won the parliamentary elections on October 26, but the opposition rejected the results, reports RFE/RL.

Protesters are therefore challenging the new parliament since its first session on Monday, as is pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili, who has called on the Constitutional Court to annul the election results.

Despite this, Georgian lawmakers met on Tuesday to set December 14 as the date for the next presidential election.

- Our team unanimously decided to propose Mikheil Kavelashvili for the position of the country's president - said honorary chairman of Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili yesterday, calling him "the embodiment of the Georgian man".

Father of four, the 53-year-old former footballer who played for English Manchester City between 1996 and 1999 entered politics in 2016, becoming a member of parliament for the Georgian Dream party.

After leaving Georgian Dream in 2022, he founded his own right-wing eurosceptic party, People's Power.

During his football career, he played for the Georgian national team, Dinamo Tbilisi, and briefly for Manchester City in the mid-1990s.

Georgia has been rocked by protests following the disputed parliamentary elections on October 26, in which the ruling party won a convincing victory.

Zourabichvili, opposition parties, and independent observers say the elections were rigged.

The presidential election is scheduled to be held on December 14.

The future president will be elected by an electoral college for the first time, rather than directly by citizens, according to a constitutional change adopted by Georgian Dream in 2017.

These indirect elections aim to strengthen the ruling Georgian Dream party's control at a time when this former Soviet republic is going through a period of political turbulence.

The inauguration of the future leader will be held on December 29.