Georgia gets one more potential candidate for presidency.

TBILISI. February 23. KAZINFORM Former speaker of Georgia?s Supreme Soviet /parliament/, Akaky Asatiani said Monday he will run for presidency if the incumbent President Mikhail Saakashvili resigns.

Asatiani, who occupied the speaker?s post in 1991, said: ?After Saakashvili resigns, I?ll support any candidate for presidency who states that he or she will eliminate the Office of the President upon coming to power and will turn the country into a parliamentary republic.? ?Still, I?ll run for presidency myself if none of the candidates says this,? he said. ?The institute of the presidency has proved to be wrong here and it must be eliminated,? Asatiani said. ?If I win the election, I?ll do everything to eliminate it and declare Georgia a parliamentary republic.? Asatiani, 56, has been a teacher and translator in the past. He is a graduate of the department of Oriental studies at Tbilisi State University; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass. Apart from chairing the Supreme Soviet in 1991, he was a member of parliament from 1992 through 1995 and from 1995 through 1999. Asatiani has stood in opposition to President Eduard Shevardnadze and to Mikhail Saakashvili likewise. As of the 1980?s, he has been chairman of the Union of Georgian Traditionalists party.