Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has vowed to challenge incumbent President Mikheil Saakashvili's party in next year's parliamentary elections, said on Friday he will come to power but not as the result of a revolution.
“I don’t want to hear the word ‘revolution’ and I don’t even want to mention the word ‘street.’ We must set a precedent in the change of government through elections,” he said.
Saakashvili can only hold on to power by rigging elections but Ivanishvili and his supporters will be able “to prove his illegitimacy.”
On October 7, Ivanishvili announced plans to set up a political party uniting "healthy" political forces in Georgia with the goal of achieving an absolute majority in the 2012 elections.
He said he was ready to cooperate with Georgia’s Republican Party and the Our Georgia-Free Democrats party.
The 56-year-old businessman has said he is determined to challenge "Mikheil Saakashvili’s total monopoly.”
The businessman said he was ready to assume the post of Georgian prime minister or parliamentary speaker.
