FD Leader Alasania to Stand for Majoritarian MP in Gori

Leader of the opposition Free Democrats (FD) party, Irakli Alasania, will run as a majoritarian MP candidate in Gori, main town of Shida Kartli region.

Alasania, who was defense minister before his party quit the Georgian Dream coalition in 2014, announced about the decision on August 10 after FD’s candidate in Gori, MP Tamaz Shioshvili, decided to quit the race.

Alasania said that his “long-time friend” Shioshvili told him that he was quitting the politics – neither Alasania nor Shioshvili himself named reasons behind the decision, which comes less than a month after FD nominated Shioshvili as its majoritarian MP candidate in Gori.

“I will personally stand in Gori for the majoritarian MP seat; we will win in Gori and it will also have a serious impact on overall election results in Georgia,” said Alasania, who initially was not among FD’s majoritarian MP candidates named by the party in mid-July; he, however, leads FD’s party list of MP candidates.

Alasania’s competitor in Gori from the ruling GDDG party is Ioseb Makrakhidze, a co-owner and chief executive of Gori-based asphalt manufacturing and road construction company Ibolia.

UNM opposition party has nominated a former senior law enforcement official in the Shida Kartli region, Alexandre Goglidze, as its majoritarian MP candidate in the town of Gori.
 
In 2012 elections, Alasania ran as Georgian Dream majoritarian candidate in Zugdidi in Samegrelo region, western Georgia, but lost the race to UNM’s candidate.

Georgia has a mixed electoral system in which 73 lawmakers are elected in 73 single-member constituencies, known in Georgia as “majoritarian” mandates (a candidate has to win over 50% of votes in order to be an outright winner otherwise a second round should be held), and rest 77 seats are allocated proportionally under the party-list contest among political parties, which clear 5% threshold in nationwide popular vote.