TBILISI, March 18 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze urged on Monday the country's current leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, to resign for the good of the country.

“I assure you that Saakashvili is not the kind of politician who can influence the political processes in the country,” Shevardnazde said in an interview with the Asaval-Dasavali daily.

“I can only give him one piece of advice: That’s enough, you’ve turned the country upside down. Maybe you’ll see the light and resign?”

Georgia’s next presidential election is set for October 2013.

The Saakashvili-led United National Movement (UNM) was defeated by the Georgian Dream opposition coalition, led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, in parliamentary elections on October 1, 2012.

The elections were vital in the light of a law passed in 2010 transferring the majority of the president’s executive powers to the prime minister when Saakashvili’s second term ends in 2013.

After becoming prime minister, Ivanishvili claimed that Saakashvili and his party had ruined the country since coming to power nine years ago.