Debates won't affect Georgian presidential elections, expert says

The first debates between presidential candidates have recently been held in Georgia. Georgy Margelashvili from the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, David Bakradze from the pro-presidential United National Movement party, Georgy Targamadze from the Christian and Democratic Party and Zurab Kharatishvili from the European Democrats party have taken part in the debates.

Vestnik Kavkaza discussed the debates with Georgian political analyst Iosif Tsiskarishvili.

According to the expert, the candidates focused on mutual criticism and left the major political issues untouched. The reason is that the format of the event was wrong, the expert says.

It would be better if the candidates debated in pairs rather than all together, he says. Such a format is not used in Europe, he underlines.

Such debates are unlikely to change anybody's position, Tsiskarishvili believes.