In its front-page article the Georgian daily Rezonansi (Resonance) comments on a recent split in the ruling National Movement party’s Adjara branch, which resulted in the withdrawal of membership by several leading party activists.

The newspaper speculates that disagreements within the ruling party will continue and lead to futher defections. “A total of 12 parliamentarians have left the National Movement in recent months… According to unofficial information 8 more MPs will join them soon,” the paper reads.

Davit Batsikadze, one of the leading officials of the ruling National Movement party in the Adjara Autonomous Republic quit his party on February 25 – just one day after a group of National Movement party activists in Adjara announced that they withdraw their party membership.

Davit Batsikadze, who was the Deputy Chairman of the National Movement’s parliamentary faction in Adjara’s legislative body - the Supreme Council - cited disagreements with the Autonomous Republic’s leadership as the reason behind his resignation.

The Rezonansi quotes the leader of the opposition Republican Party, MP Davit Berdzenishvili, who also quit the ruling party last June, as saying that the decision of those activists to pull out of the ruling party “was a blow for the National Movement.”

MP Davit Berdzenishvili also said that these persons, including himself and Sulkhan Ghlonti, “were a driving force behind the youth of Adjara who were active supporters of the National Movement.”