Irina Sarishvili
In many ways, Irina Sarishvili's political career is a study in contradictions. In Soviet times a prominent independence activist, she went on to become a deputy prime minister under former President Eduard Shevardnadze and a spokesperson for Shevardnadze's 2003 election bloc. In recent years, she has backed ex-Georgian security chief Igor Giorgadze, who fled into exile in Russia after allegedly plotting to assassinate Shevardnadze.
Born in Tbilisi in 1962, Sarishvili has a degree in English language and literature instruction from Tbilisi State University. She was married to Soviet-era independence activist Giorgi Chanturia, who was assassinated in Tbilisi in 1994. After Chanturia's death, she became head of the National Democratic Party of Georgia, and kept this position till 2004.
A former member of parliament, Sarishvili served as spokesperson for the Shevardnadze election bloc For a New Georgia during the 2003 parliamentary elections in 2003 and opposed compromise with protestors of the election results.
In 2004, Sarishvili quit the National Democratic Party and established a non-governmental organization that opposed the dispatch of Georgian peacekeepers to Iraq.
Sarishvili went on to head exiled security chief Giorgadze's foundation in Georgia and joined with activists from the Anti-Soros Movement in protesting against Saakashvili and the Open Society Georgia Foundation, part of the Soros Foundation Network. [EurasiaNet.org is part of the Central Eurasia Project run by the Open Society Institute.]
Sarishvili's association with Giorgadze after the arrest of supporters accused of plotting a government coup cost her potential allies. Although Sarishvili's political movement Imedi (Hope) has since distanced itself from Giorgadze, mainstream opposition parties refuse any collaboration with the group, widely seen as pro-Russian.
Sarishvili is the only presidential candidate opposing Georgia's integration into NATO; she argues that neutrality is the only guarantee for the country's economic, political and national security.
Like other candidates, however, she supports the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, though argues that the presidency should be preserved until then to prevent further difficulties in relations with breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Website: NA
Address: 52 Aghmashenebelis Gamziri, Tbilisi
Tel: (995-32) 91-09-16; 17
