Zviad Dzidziguri | |
|---|---|
ზვიად ძიძიგური | |
| Member of theParliament of Georgia | |
| In office 21 October 2012 – 18 November 2019[1] | |
| In office 22 April 2004 – 20 June 2008 | |
| In office 14 November 1990 – 2 January 1992 | |
| Prefect of theSamtredia District | |
| In office 1991–1992 | |
| Deputy Chairperson of theParliament of Georgia | |
| In office 18 November 2016 – 18 November 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1964-10-24)24 October 1964 |
| Political party | Round Table—Free Georgia(1990-1993) Conservative Party(2001-present) |
| Other political affiliations | United National Movement(2003-2004) United National Council(2007-2010) Georgian Dream(2012-2019) |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Engineer |
Zviad Dzidziguri (Georgian:ზვიად ძიძიგური) (born October 24, 1964) is aGeorgian politician. He has been the chairman of theConservative Party of Georgia since 2004 and a vice-speaker of theParliament of Georgia since 2012.
Dzidziguri was born in the village of Marani in theAbasha District of then-Soviet Georgia and was trained as an engineer at thePolytechnic Institute of Georgia. He joined an anti-Soviet national movement in 1987.[2] In July 1990, Dzidziguri, then an activist ofZviad Gamsakhurdia-led Round Table coalition, was the principal driving force behind the blockade of a railway junction atSamtredia, mounted by the opposition to pressure the Soviet Georgian government into adopting a liberal election code.[3]
Dzidziguri was elected to theSupreme Council of Georgia from Samtredia in Soviet Georgia'sfirst multi-party election in 1990. In 1991,President Zviad Gamsakhurdia appointed him aprefect of theSamtredia District. Dzidziguri remained Gamsakhurdia's loyalist after the president's ouster in the January 1992 coup d'état and acted as his envoy in the province ofSamegrelo. Dzidziguri was arrested by the new government ofEduard Shevardnadze in 1995 and spend five years in prison before being released as part of a mass pre-term release of political prisoners.[2]
After his release, Dzidziguri founded the opposition political organization Union of National Forces, which evolved into the Conservative Party of Georgia. In 2002, he allied himself with the new opposition leaderMikheil Saakashvili[4] and was elected to the Parliament of Georgia from Samtredia on a joint ticket with Saakashvili-ledUnited National Movement bloc in 2003. He was energetically involved in the mass demonstrations against Shevardnadze's government which concluded with theRose Revolution in November 2003 and brought Saakashvili to the presidency of Georgia in January 2004. Later that year, Dzidziguri broke with Saakashvili and withdrew into opposition, taking part in the demonstrations against the government in2007 and2009.[2] In 2010, he ran, unsuccessfully, in the mayoral race in the Georgian capital,Tbilisi. In 2011, he joined the new opposition allianceGeorgian Dream led byBidzina Ivanishvili and was elected to the Parliament for the city ofRustavi in the2012 election.[5] On October 21, 2012, he was elected as one of the vice-speakers of the Parliament of Georgia.[6]