Davit Usupashvili, parliamentary chairman in 2012-2016 and former leader of the Republican Party, presented the mayoral candidate of his new political party – the Development Movement – at an outdoor campaign event in Tbilisi on August 4.

“The Development Movement has been launched, congratulations!” Davit Usupashvili greeted the party activists and supporters, adding that the Development Movement would have “a serious ambition” for the 2018 presidential elections and aim at obtaining victory in the 2020 parliamentary polls.

The former parliamentary chairman, who announced the new political movement on June 16, said at the presentation that Tengiz Shergelashvili, deputy minister for regional development and infrastructure in 2012-2016, would run for Tbilisi mayor in the October municipal elections.

Speaking on the merits of the mayoral candidate, Davit Usupashvili noted that Shergelashvili was one of the authors of the self-government reform, which the incumbent government “reversed.”

In his remarks at the presentation, Tengiz Shergelashvili spoke at length on economic, transport and environmental problems in the city. He also noted, echoing the Development Movement’s electoral slogan, that “Tbilisi has all the preconditions to take care of what’s good … to change what’s not good and to create what we lack in the city.”

The mayoral candidate spoke on his opponents as well, landing criticism on the Georgian Dream and the United National Movement and adding that with the establishment of the Development Movement the voters are now able to make “a conscious choice.”

As part of the presentation, the former parliamentary chairman also unveiled the party’s 27-member electoral team for Tbilisi, saying that the “team in the making” would show serious success in the municipal elections.

The Development Movement plans to participate in mayoral and Sakrebulo (local councils) elections in the regions as well.