Nine-Party Coalition to Run on Joint Ticket in Polls

The nine-party opposition coalition will form an election bloc to run agreed candidates in the parliamentary elections this spring, MP Kakha Kukava of the Conservative Party said on February 15.

Addressing thousands of protesters outside Parliament, he said: “One of the key questions asked by you is: will the opposition unite?”

“Today I want you to know our answer,” he continued, “the united opposition has decided to remain united and to run in the parliamentary elections on a joint ticket in order to achieve final victory together with you.”

The coalition unites nine opposition parties: Republican; Conservative; Georgia’s Way; Freedom; On Our Own; the Georgian Troupe (Kartuli Dasi); Party of People; National Forum and the Movement for United Georgia. The coalition also includes two individual opposition politicians: MP Levan Gachechiladze and Giorgi Khaindrava, a former state minister for conflict resolution issues.

MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the opposition New Rights Party, which has also joined the protest rallies, had earlier called on all opposition parties to unite. He said it was necessary to run on a joint ticket in the elections “to defeat the authorities.”

“We won’t be able to achieve our goals only through protest rallies, so I want to tell all the opposition parties – including the nine-party coalition, the Labor Party, Industrialists, Giorgi Targamadze’s newly set up party – that the only way today is to unite. A united opposition front will guarantee the defeat of the authorities. So unity on all fronts, including a joint ticket [in the upcoming parliamentary elections], is my proposal to all the opposition parties. We should put aside our ideological differences for now, until we create a real democratic political environment in this country,” he said.