Opposition Debates Local Elections Tactics

With the local self-governance elections less than six months away, some opposition leaders are calling to team up, while others prefer a policy of boycotting; only a few of these oppostion members consider both of these options unattractive.

The capital city Tbilisi, with one-third of the entire country’s voters, will be the major target for the political parties during the local elections, which are tentatively scheduled for November; but no exact date has been announced yet.

Only two opposition leaders have announced their intention to run for the Tbilisi Mayor’s office so far: ex-Foreign Minister and leader of the newly created opposition Georgia’s Way party Salome Zourabichvili and opposition Conservative Party leader Koba Davitashvili.

Opposition politicians will have to confront the ruling National Movement party’s nominee – current Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava.

Most of the opposition leaders say that because of the existing law the only chance to succeed in the elections is to unite and form an election coalition.
 
According to the law, the Tbilisi Mayor will be elected by the Tbilisi City Council – the Sakrebulo – where 25 members will be elected through a first-past-the-post, “winner takes all” majoritarian system in Tbilisi’s ten constituencies, while the remaining 12 seats will be distributed, through a so called “compensatory list,” from among those parties which garner at least 4% of votes in all ten constituencies of the capital city.

But in respect of the majoritarian system, a party should garner at least 1/3 of the total ballots cast in a particular constituency to endorse candidates in that Sakrebulo. Five out of ten elections districts in Tbilisi will be three-mandate constituencies, while the other five will be two-mandate constituencies.

The 37-member City Council will then elect the Tbilisi Mayor from among its members. The candidate will have to win at least 2/3 of the total votes in the council.

“For me the most important issue is the unity of the opposition and this is because of the current law, which enables the opposition candidates to win only if we [the opposition] unite,” MP Koba Davitashvili said while speaking on a political talks show aired by the Imedi television on June 2.

He said there are only two options for the opposition – either unite and nominate a single candidate or unite and boycott the elections jointly in order to make the authorities change the current system of a first-past-the-post, “winner takes all” election system.

“These are the two major principles which the opposition parties should adhere to,” MP Davitashvili said.

He said that he is ready to give up the ambition of becoming the Tbilisi Mayor and support Salome Zourabichvili “only if she agrees to team up with the rest of the opposition parties based on these two principles.”

Leader of the New Rights opposition party MP Davit Gamkrelidze echoed the proposal of MP Davitashvili and said that his party is also ready to support the opposition’s single candidate.

“We are ready to give up our ambitions and refuse a nomination of our candidacy and support a nomination made jointly by the opposition parties. This is our proposal and I hope the other opposition parties will also join this proposal,” MP Gamkrelidze said while addressing the New Rights congress in Tbilisi on June 3.

But Salome Zourabichvili is against this so called “mechanical” unification with other opposition parties and prefers more issue-based cooperation.

“When there were talks about unification initiated by the opposition leaders, no one ever asked me about my party’s platform, or my position and opinions [about political, social and economic issues],” Salome Zourabichvili said on June 2.

She also said that her decision to run for Mayor is “firm.”

“I am not a person who changes her mind so easily,” she said on Imedi TV’s political talks show.

Zourabichvili said in May that she does not consider the “indirect election of a Mayor as undemocratic” – a position which greatly differs from those voiced by the rest of the opposition politicians.

Radical opposition Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili, who called for the opposition parties in April to boycott the upcoming local elections, still adheres to this same position.

“I think it will be much better for the people to go and rally on Rustaveli Avenue [outside the Parliament] in order to get rid of Saakashvili’s regime, rather then going to the polling stations in November,” Natelashvili said on June 3.

But the ruling National Movement party has downplayed these calls for a boycott.

“I do not think that all the opposition forces in the country will join calls for a boycott,” MP Giga Bokeria of the National Movement party said on June 2.

The Republican Party is also in favor of close cooperation between the opposition parties.

“It is too early to talk about our position on the [Tbilisi Mayor] candidates, but I can say that despite unfavorable conditions [the election system] it is still worth a struggle in these elections,” MP Davit Berdzenishvili told Civil Georgia on June 3.