Four Opposition Parties Agree to Hold Primaries

The New Rights, the Conservative Party, the Labor Party and the Freedom Party signed a memorandum on cooperation on August 5 envisaging the holding of primaries for the five open parliamentary majoritarian (single mandate constiuency) seats to be filled in October 1 by-elections. Each party will name a candidate for each of the races and the winner will represent the united opposition in the by-elections.      

“This is a very important moment, as this is the first instance of political parties holding primaries in Georgia. This should be an example of cooperation for the authorities,? MP Koba Davitashvili, the leader of the Conservative Party, said at the ceremony for the signing of the memorandum. The Conservative Party initiated the idea of holding primaries.

?Initially this initiative sounded very vague and there were doubts as to whether we could agree on terms. But now I am satisfied that we managed to agree and to cooperate. This does not mean a merger of these political parties, it is just a civilized form of cooperation,? New Rights leader and MP Davit Gamkrelidze said.

He said that on August 8 that each of these four parties will nominate their own candidates to run in the primaries, which will be managed by a specially set up election commission. ?This election commission will also be an example of how to hold free and fair elections,? Gamkrelidze said.

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