Zurab Chiaberashvili
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Zurab Tchiaberashvili is a Georgian political rights activist, politician, philosopher and journalist.
Tchiaberashvili began his career as an academic, political analyst and journalist. He was also the progarm director of Liberty Institute, than executive director of the non-government organization the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), which later, during a messy and controversial split, spawned the Fair Elections Foundation, both of which lobbied for free and fair elections in Georgia and monitored the parliamentary election of February 28, 2004.
On October 24, 2003, he was detained without charge after discovering an extortion attempt by a police officer. He was later released after protests.
After the 2003 presidential elections in Georgia were widely perceived to be rigged, both then-President Eduard Shevardnadze and the head of the Central Election Commission were forced to resign. As a prominent activist for fair elections, new president Mikhail Saakashvili chose Tchiaberashvili as the new head of the Commission.
In this role, he presided over both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2004, which received praise from international observers for their fairness. However, he was very critical of the abuses which did occur.
On April 19, 2004, after previously stepping down from his role with the Central Election Commission, Tchiaberashvili was appointed on the position of the Mayor of Tbilisi. In 2005 he was appointed as Georgian Ambassador to Council of Europe.
