Initializing select with AngularJS and ng-repeat

OK. If you don’t want to use the correct way ng-options, you can add ng-selected attribute with a condition check logic for the option directive to to make the pre-select work.

<select ng-model="filterCondition.operator">
    <option ng-selected="{{operator.value == filterCondition.operator}}"
            ng-repeat="operator in operators"
            value="{{operator.value}}">
      {{operator.displayName}}
    </option>
</select>

Working Demo