Maia Chigoeva-Tsaboshvili, chairperson of the Tbilisi-based non-governmental organization Georgian-Ossetian Union “Iber-Ironi” has announced her intention to run in the presidential elections scheduled in breakaway South Ossetia for November 12.

“[South Ossetian leader] Eduard Kokoity [who will be running for re-election] has all the levers to rig the ballot. But I hope that he will let me run in the elections and will not create obstacles to register as a candidate. I hope Kokoity will not be afraid of me,” Chigoeva-Tsaboshvili said at a news conference in Tbilisi on September 15.

Maia Chigoeva-Tsaboshvili, 40, is also a member of the Georgian moderate opposition party Industry Will Save Georgia (Industrialists). She is currently running for a position in the Tbilisi Sakrebulo. The Industrialist Party has nominated Chigoeva-Tsaboshvili in Tbilisi’s Samgori three-mandate constituency.

Georgian-Ossetian Union “Iber-Ironi,” which was established in 2000, focuses on civil society development and confidence-building between the Georgian and Ossetian sides, Maia Chigoeva-Tsaboshvili says.

She said the South Ossetian conflict should be solved according to a statement approved by the OSCE Ministerial Council last December, the same position held by official Tbilisi.